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The Many Lives of Mama Love
‘The Many Lives of Mama Love contains notes of Wild, Orange is the New Black, and Catch me if you Can’ -The New York Times
‘Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story.’ PIPER KERMAN, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Orange is the New Black
‘Thrilling, funny, heart-breaking and moving. I’ll return to this book when I need to be reminded of the power of the human spirit.’ DAVID SHEFF, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Boy
‘Hardin is an aptly named genius with a heart of gold’ ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
‘A book to intrigue, enchant, instruct, entertain and inspire’ GABOR MATÉ M.D., author of the New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal
‘A hilarious and heart-breaking confession that will not let you go until it is done – and then it will haunt you.’ LORI GOTTLIEB, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Reading was her first addiction; but then came opiates. And so, despite the appearances of a perfect picket fence life, Lara steals credit cards and goes through people’s mail, raiding identities to sustain her addiction until eventually she finds herself in a Californian prison.
She has to get to grip quickly with life behind bars. She doesn’t know the street world of Santa Cruz so isn’t sure who to be afraid of, defer to, or lord above – but she does know how to pretend. Within weeks, she understands every gang and all the prison slang, and is doling out advice and writing letters for the other girls in prison. She finds she has a talent for writing under the guise of others, for absolute empathy with them. Before long she’s earned herself a nickname: ‘Mama Love’.
The Many Lives of Mama Love is a beautiful, page-turning memoir about a powerful, redemptive journey with a surprising final act. It’s about reaching rock bottom and clambering back up; about healing, shame and self-forgiveness, and about writing yourself a new path, with a different destiny.
‘Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story.’ PIPER KERMAN, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Orange is the New Black
‘Thrilling, funny, heart-breaking and moving. I’ll return to this book when I need to be reminded of the power of the human spirit.’ DAVID SHEFF, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Boy
‘Hardin is an aptly named genius with a heart of gold’ ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
‘A book to intrigue, enchant, instruct, entertain and inspire’ GABOR MATÉ M.D., author of the New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal
‘A hilarious and heart-breaking confession that will not let you go until it is done – and then it will haunt you.’ LORI GOTTLIEB, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Reading was her first addiction; but then came opiates. And so, despite the appearances of a perfect picket fence life, Lara steals credit cards and goes through people’s mail, raiding identities to sustain her addiction until eventually she finds herself in a Californian prison.
She has to get to grip quickly with life behind bars. She doesn’t know the street world of Santa Cruz so isn’t sure who to be afraid of, defer to, or lord above – but she does know how to pretend. Within weeks, she understands every gang and all the prison slang, and is doling out advice and writing letters for the other girls in prison. She finds she has a talent for writing under the guise of others, for absolute empathy with them. Before long she’s earned herself a nickname: ‘Mama Love’.
The Many Lives of Mama Love is a beautiful, page-turning memoir about a powerful, redemptive journey with a surprising final act. It’s about reaching rock bottom and clambering back up; about healing, shame and self-forgiveness, and about writing yourself a new path, with a different destiny.
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Reviews
Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story.
Thrilling, funny, heart-breaking and moving. I'll return to this book when I need to be reminded of the power of the human spirit.
Hardin is an aptly named genius with a heart of gold.
Compelling and timely.
A hilarious and heart-breaking confession that will not let you go until it is done - and then it will haunt you.
A courageous and inspiring memoir
A suburban mom weathers addiction, jail, and parole in this roller-coaster debut memoir... Hardin mixes despair and comedy in her evocative prose: "I carefully pick through the bottom-of-purse debris until I find some small brown chips.... I don't know if I'm smoking heroin or food crumbs or lint, but I feel the anxiety slowly leave my chest." This redemption story feels well earned.'
'Laced with penetrating wit, written with unsparing honesty and manifesting irrepressible resilience, The Many Lives of Mama Love is a book to intrigue, enchant, instruct, entertain and inspire readers of all ages and backgrounds. It speaks to our common human experience of suffering and the healing that can follow.'
This book will make you laugh, cry, and realize that everyone deserves a chance and, sometimes more than one. A powerful, poignant memoir filled with grace, enlightenment and love.
Hardin reveals who we truly are deep inside: infinite souls of limitless possibility. We are far more than the sum of what we have done and not done, what we have and do not have. In her profound, moving memoir, Hardin is honest, courageous, and challenges us to exceed the limiting definition we impose on ourselves and one another. We all can be redeemed.
Grips you as suddenly as any psychological thriller... Readers will experience the lows and highs of addiction, incarceration and rehabilitation as Love Hardin assembles the pieces of her shattered life into something beautiful again in this inspiring chronicle.
The Many Lives of Mama Love is a masterclass in perseverance. This brilliant memoir is a reminder and inspiration that sometimes the only way out of suffering is to go straight through it. This book will leave you inspired and empowered to reveal your own most authentic self.
Grips you as suddenly as any psychological thriller...Readers will experience the lows and highs of addiction, incarceration and rehabilitation as Love Hardin assembles the pieces of her shattered life into something beautiful again in this inspiring chronicle.
After negotiating prison politics and being released, she found success as a ghostwriter - but her shame tainted her achievements and her dazzling life of encounters with stars including Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Hardin's narrative to self-acceptance is dazzling too, as momentous as the road she's traveled.
One woman refuses to let her greatest mistake define her in this stunning memoir from author and literary agent Lara Love Hardin...dark, funny, and inspirational, The Many Lives of Mama Love proves that truth can be so much stranger than fiction.