Make a Home Out of You

Book excerpt: For readers of Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp comes an unflinching coming-of-age addiction memoir about one woman’s journey to overcome her destructive roots to discover her road to recovery. Born to an abusive mother and a drug-dealer father, Ginelle Testa is not exactly set up for success—and her early years are just as troubled as one might expect. By the end of her thirteenth year, she’s started experimenting with alcohol and drugs, has fallen prey to anorexia, and has been sexually assaulted. And that’s only the beginning of her spiral down into addiction and disordered eating. As Ginelle progresses into young adulthood, she hits several substance-related bottoms. In her senior year of college, after blacking out and ending up naked in her dorm’s community shower, she goes to Alcoholics Anonymous and gets sober. But steering clear of drugs and alcohol, she discovers, is not a cure-all—she still has a long way to go before she can truly heal. Raw, relatable, and powerful, Testa’s is a riveting tale of climbing up from rock bottom—and learning to make a home in oneself instead of in substances and other people.