New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin recounts her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot-caller and her unlikely comeback as a highly successful ghostwriter in this harrowing, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir.
No one expects the police to knock on the million-dollar, two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors’ credit cards.
Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She learns that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies. Furniture is made from tampon boxes and Snickers bars are currency. But Lara quickly finds the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder to become the “shot caller,” showing that jailhouse politics aren’t that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend.
When she’s released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she’s legally co-opting other people’s identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with The Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin—there is no way to detox. Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, prove to herself that she is more good than bad, and much more.
The Many Lives of Mama Love is a heartbreaking and tender journey from shame to redemption, despite a system that makes it almost impossible for us to move beyond the worst thing we have ever done.
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“Heartfelt, humor-tinged prose…[that] contains notes of Wild, Orange Is the New Black, and Catch Me If You Can.”
— New York Times
“Once you start reading, be prepared, because you won’t want to stop.”
— Oprah Daily“A courageous and inspiring memoir.”
— Kirkus Reviews“A hilarious and heartbreaking confession that will not let you go until it is done.”
— Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author“A masterclass in perseverance…This book will leave you inspired and empowered to reveal your own most authentic self.”
— Rich Roll, author of Finding UltraBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Lara Love Hardin is a literary agent, author, and president of True Literary. Prior to founding True Literary, she was the co-CEO of Idea Architects. She has an MFA degree in creative writing and is a five-time New York Times bestselling collaborative writer, including the bestseller Designing Your Life and The Sun Does Shine, which she coauthored with Anthony Ray Hinton.