Beautiful Boy

David Sheff's story is a first: a teenager's addiction from the parent's point-of-view, a real-time chronicle of the shocking descent into substance abuse and the gradual emergence into hope. Before meth, Sheff's son, Nic, was a varsity athlete, honor student, and award-winning journalist. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who stole money from his eight-year-old brother and lived on the streets. With haunting candor, Sheff traces the first warning signs, the attempts at rehabilitation, and, at last, the way past addiction. He shows us that, whatever an addict's fate, the rest of the family must care for one another, too, lest they become addicted to addiction. David Sheff's work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Wired and Fortune. As a contributing editor to Playboy, he has interviewed John Lennon, Thomas Friedman, the founders of Google, Gore Vidal, and others. Anthony Heald has earned Tony nominations and an Obie Award for his theater work, appeared in television's Law & Order, The X-Files, Miami Vice, and Boston Public and starred as Dr. Frederick Chilton in the 1991 Oscar-winning film Silence of the Lambs. He lives in Ashland, Oregon with his family.