Townie
A Memoir

Andre Dubus III, author of theNational Book AwardnominatedHouse of Sand and FogandThe Garden of Last Days, reflects on his violent past and a lifestyle that threatened to destroy himuntil he was saved by writing. After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fists so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killedor killing someone elseor to beatingsforpay as a boxer. Nearby, his father, an eminent author, taught on a college campus and took the kids outon Sundays. The clash of worlds couldnt have been more starkor more difficult for a son to communicate to a father. Only bybecoming a writerhimself could Andre begin to bridge the abyss and save himself. His memoir is a riveting, visceral, profound meditation on physical violence and the failures and triumphs of love.