Everything is Horrible and Wonderful, Stephanie Wittels Wachs
Everything is Horrible and Wonderful, Stephanie Wittels Wachs
5 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Everything is Horrible and Wonderful
A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love and Loss

Author: Stephanie Wittels Wachs

Narrator: Stephanie Wittels Wachs

Unabridged: 6 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/27/2018


Synopsis

The space between life and death is a moment.

But it will remain alive in me for hundreds of thousands of future moments.

One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs's life forever . . .

Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance?

In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation. This compelling portrait of a comedic genius and a profound exploration of the love between siblings is The Year of Magical Thinking for a new generation of listeners.

A heartbreaking but hopeful memoir of addiction, grief, and family, Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful will make you laugh, cry, and wonder if that possum on the fence is really your brother's spirit animal.

About Stephanie Wittels Wachs

Stephanie Wittels Wachs is a writer, theater artist, educator, and voice actor. She is the Executive Director of Rec Room Arts in Houston, Texas, and cohost of the weekly podcast Hands Off Parents.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma on March 18, 2020

introducing: the runaway winner of the Most Personal Thing I Have Ever Put On The Internet contest!!! find this full review here if you dare: [URL not allowed] ----------- At the end of 2014, I was in my junior year of high school, and I was in the deepest depression of my life.......more

Goodreads review by Valerity (Val) on March 04, 2018

This book by Stephanie Wach was an especially moving, and wrenching read for me, as I feel I could have written a similar book 30 years ago about the sudden loss of my only brother who was 28. I too, was the mother of a toddler when I got the call that turned my life upside down forever. I related t......more

Goodreads review by Malia on September 26, 2019

This was a difficult book, because the story it tells is real and so personal and tragic, but Wittels Wachs approaches it with humanity and even humor and I am glad I read it. It is a story of loss and of love and family, and I was deeply moved by how honest the author was. Find more reviews and book......more