Stuart: A Life Backwards

"Remarkable…. a harrowing and humane portrait of an extraordinary individual …without a shred of sentimentality or cant."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"A quirky, affecting book."—People

"Compelling …. Stuart is hilarious. He’s a witty and dramatic raconteur with a profane Cockney voice, a charismatic gleam and a gift for relating the most horrifying events — things done both to him and by him — without excuse or self-pity…. Stuart’s determination to live a life grounded in some principle deserves our attention. Listen to this man. Look him in the eye."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"This is my pick so far as best memoir of the year…. [Masters’] sketch of Stuart is informative and heartbreaking, funny and at times brutally honest…. describing a genuine friendship."—Margo Hammond, St. Petersburg Times

"Compelling …. Stuart is hilarious. He’s a witty and dramatic raconteur with a profane Cockney voice, a charismatic gleam and a gift for relating the most horrifying events—things done both to him and by him— without excuse or self-pity…. Stuart’s determination to live a life grounded in some principle deserves our attention. Listen to this man. Look him in the eye."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Achieves a perfect balance of empathy and comedy. The real attraction, however, is Stuart’s own voice…. His life resists easy explanation, which makes Masters’s patient attention to its concrete details all the more affecting."—The New Yorker

"The year’s most surprising and charming biography."—Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick

"Poignantly entertaining."—Elle Magazine

"Hilarious and clear-eyed, the author’s superbly drawn portrait of Stuart is an unforgettable literary evocation and a small masterpiece of moral empathy and imagination."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Possibly the best biography I have ever read. Just about perfect." —Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

"Raw, disturbing, and unsettling but also revelatory and life-affirming … A must-read book that is warmly funny, deeply moving, and utterly extraordinary. "—Booklist, starred review