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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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EVERYTHING IS HORRIBLE AND WONDERFUL

Stephanie Wittels Wachs

A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss

On February 19, 2015, Stephanie Wittels Wachs got a life-changing phone call. Her younger brother, Harris Wittels, a star in the comedy world known for his work as a writer and producer on shows like Parks and Recreation and The Sarah Silverman Program, and praised by the likes of Louis CK, Jimmy Kimmel, Patton Oswalt and Marc Maron for his own standup routines, had died of a heroin overdose.
The space between life and death is a moment.
But it will remain alive in me for hundreds of thousands of future moments.

One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs' life forever..
Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance?

In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation. This compelling portrait of a comedic genius and a profound exploration of the love between siblings is A Year of Magical Thinking for a new generation of readers.

A heartbreaking but hopeful memoir of addiction, grief, and family, Everything is Horrible and Wonderful will make you laugh, cry, and wonder if that possum on the fence is really your brother's spirit animal.

Stephanie Wittels Wach holds a B.F.A in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and an M.A. in Theatre from the University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance. Her writing has been featured on Vox, Longform, Longreads, Huffington Post, Fatherly, Mamamia, Babble, and Medium. Before co-founding the Rec Room, a performance space in downtown Houston, she was the head of the acting
program at Houston's esteemed High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. A well-known voice-over actress for ADV and Seraphim Films, Stephanie is also the co-host of "Hands Off Parents," a weekly parenting podcast.
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Book

Published 2018-02-26 by Sourcebooks

Book

Published 2018-02-26 by Sourcebooks

Comments

In unflinching detail and with remarkable openness, Wachs describes the ugly and complicated nature of mourning someone who was not only a brother and best friend, but also an addict, a public figure, and a comedic genius whose life was cut off at the very cusp of success... a powerful debut that will resonate especially with readers who have loved and lost someone to addiction.

Brutally honest and honestly beautiful, Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful is so much more than a story of how addiction can tear a family apart; it's a magnificent tribute to a brother and to the perfectly imperfect family that we all have. The clarity with which Stephanie Wittels Wachs describes addiction, death and its aftermath comes through on every page... she lays bare the ugliest truths without demonizing the destructive behavior of an addict. Threaded through with the fiercest unconditional love, this is an absolutely gorgeous book.

Human and heartbreaking, this sister's story of living with and losing a brother to addiction is a doozy. A great read and an intimate and illuminating account of an addict's impact on a family.

So beautiful, funny and epically poignant.

Every minute more of us know the unique pain of helplessly watching someone we care about descend into the pit of addiction. Stephanie Wittels Wachs has been there, and she emerges with her wit, wisdom, and spirit intact. This remarkable and movingly told story will break and mend hearts.

Harrowing, heartbreaking, and cathartic... Wachs writes with immense love, humor, and humanity... Everything about this book is horrible, wonderful, timely, and not to be missed.

Stephanie Wittels Wachs is honest, funny, moving, and so likable. She shows us the messy truth about losing someone you love - that there is no map for its tremendous pain and unexpected moments of joy.