Beamish Boy

Book excerpt: Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. "I was raised in a clock tower with bats in the belfry." So begins, BEAMISH BOY, the harrowing account of Albert Flynn DeSilver's inspirational journey from suicidal alcoholic to Poet Laureate and beyond. Filled with a luminous cast of characters, and told with searing honesty and ironic wit, BEAMISH BOY is a redemptive story of survival and letting go, as we follow Albert from one zany adventure and near-death experience to the next. He is run over by his best friend after blacking out in a driveway, contracts malaria in east Africa, and joins a psychedelic "therapy"cult, until he miraculously finds himself, through photography, poetry, and a hilarious awakening at a meditation retreat center, realizing finally, what it means to be fully alive and to truly love. "A beautifully written memoir...poignant and inspirational, comical and terrifying!"—Kirkus "...a fascinating, poetic memoir..."—ForeWord Reviews "Albert Flynn DeSilver's extraordinary story of second chances is about cultivating a creative life of joy and generosity out of the ashes of fear, doubt, and trauma."—Marci Shimoff "Sometimes we have to go to the darkest depths before we see the light. BEAMISH BOY is the inspiring true story that shows a journey of pain and self-destruction can lead to discovering that the peace and joy we yearned for, is in us all along."—James Baraz