David Carr was an addict for more than twenty years, graduating from dope to cocaine and then finally crack, before the prospect of losing his newborn twins gave him the impetus he needed to sober up. Once recovered, he found that his recollection of his lost years differed - sometimes radically - from that of his family and friends. The night, for example, his best friend pulled a gun on him. 'No,' said the friend. 'It was you that had the gun.'
using all his skills as an investigative reporter, Carr set out to research his own life, interviewing everyone from his fellow addicts, to the policeman who arrested him, to the lawyer who fought the case that won him custody of his children. Unflinchingly honest and beautifully written, the result is both a shocking account of the depths of addiction and an extraordinary meditation on how - and why - our memories deceive us.