Moving memoir from a mother and son’s journey overcoming addiction.

Great for fans of James Brown’s Apology to the Young Addict, Erin Khar’s Strung Out.

Before There Was an After: Hope and Healing on Our Journey

Through Addiction

Gerad Davis and Lisa Mead | Mead

220p, e-book, $14.99, ISBN 979-8-9883988-1-3

In this moving memoir, son and mother

Davis and Mead recount their transformative journey and the lessons they learned as Davis faced heroin addiction. After a life-altering motorcycle accident, Davis lost the feeling in his dominant arm along with his dream of attending art school and pursuing a career in photography. In the aftermath, he numbed the pain of discontentment and depression. Told in rotating point-of-views, Davis and Mead each share their perspective on the impact that addiction had on their lives and their loved ones. The duality of their story being told by both voices results in a moving, multi-faceted examination of a mother’s love and young man’s misery eventually giving way to a desire to overcome addiction.

Just as Mead reminded Davis that he was not alone, the authors show readers who may be facing similar troubles that it’s possible “to plant a seed that will sprout at some point and turn into a beautiful life.”

Through multiple relapses, lifethreatening infections, and arrests, Mead never loses faith that one day her son would win the battle. Reflecting on her support, which at times served to enable Davis’s addiction, Mead offers a transparent narrative from a loving mother never willing to give up on her son, even in times when she had to learn to let go. Davis offers urgent insight into the mind and struggles of an addict: “Experiencing addiction creates a series of cracks in your belief system,” he notes. “It blows up what you know to be true and breaks you in places you didn’t know you could be broken.”

These impassioned accounts demonstrate that “addiction is a ‘family disease’” that affects everyone in the life of an addict. Covering detoxes, surgeries, and rehab, both authors illuminate what it takes to find a path to recover—and invaluable lessons about what it takes to support an addict as the authors unflinchingly share a story offering real hope.

Cover: A- | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: – Editing: A | Marketing copy: A