The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club)

'Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story.' PIPER KERMAN, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Orange is the New Black

'Thrilling, funny, heartbreaking and moving. I'll return to this book when I need to be reminded of the power of the human spirit.' DAVID SHEFF, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Boy

'Compelling and timely' BRYAN STEVENSON, author of the New York Times bestseller Just Mercy

The Neighbour From Hell is the astonishing tale of Lara's descent from middle class soccer mum with an enviable lifestyle, beautiful home and family to an opiate addict and identity thief. Convicted of 32 felonies, her children are taken away and she is placed in a local jail.

In this strange and frightening new world, she has to get grips with life behind bars. Lara becomes known in prison as Mama Love. She helps the women around her get to grips with their own troubles, writes letters for them, acts as an advocate, and comforts them in their darkest moments. Soon she climbs the jailhouse social ladder to become 'the shot caller' showing that jailhouse politics and PTA politics are not that different.

Through her incarceration, Lara reveals a world where makeshift furniture is made from tampon boxes and snicker bars are currency, a world of brutal corruption and abuse, and of surprising humanity and tenderness.

Her story gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of the women in jail she spent time with and the very real challenges they, and she, faced trying to make it out of prison, regain custody of their children and start life afresh.

Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story. Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black

Thrilling, funny, heart-breaking and moving. I'll return to this book when I need to be reminded of the power of the human spirit.

David Sheff, author of Beautiful Boy
Hardin is an aptly named genius with a heart of gold. Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Compelling and timely.

Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy
A hilarious and heart-breaking confession that will not let you go until it is done - and then it will haunt you. Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
A courageous and inspiring memoir Kirkus Reviews
A suburban mom weathers addiction, jail, and parole in this roller-coaster debut memoir... Hardin mixes despair and comedy in her evocative prose: "I carefully pick through the bottom-of-purse debris until I find some small brown chips.... I don't know if I'm smoking heroin or food crumbs or lint, but I feel the anxiety slowly leave my chest." This redemption story feels well earned.' Publishers Weekly
Grips you as suddenly as any psychological thriller... Readers will experience the lows and highs of addiction, incarceration and rehabilitation as Love Hardin assembles the pieces of her shattered life into something beautiful again in this inspiring chronicle. BookPage
'Laced with penetrating wit, written with unsparing honesty and manifesting irrepressible resilience, The Many Lives of Mama Love is a book to intrigue, enchant, instruct, entertain and inspire readers of all ages and backgrounds. It speaks to our common human experience of suffering and the healing that can follow.' Gabor Maté M.D., author of the New York Times bestseller, The Myth of Normal
After negotiating prison politics and being released, she found success as a ghostwriter - but her shame tainted her achievements and her dazzling life of encounters with stars including Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Hardin's narrative to self-acceptance is dazzling too, as momentous as the road she's traveled. LA Times
One woman refuses to let her greatest mistake define her in this stunning memoir from author and literary agent Lara Love Hardin...dark, funny, and inspirational, The Many Lives of Mama Love proves that truth can be so much stranger than fiction. Apple
This book will make you laugh, cry, and realize that everyone deserves a chance and, sometimes more than one. A powerful, poignant memoir filled with grace, enlightenment and love. Dr. James Doty, author of the New York Times bestseller, Into The Magic Shop
Hardin reveals who we truly are deep inside: infinite souls of limitless possibility. We are far more than the sum of what we have done and not done, what we have and do not have. In her profound, moving memoir, Hardin is honest, courageous, and challenges us to exceed the limiting definition we impose on ourselves and one another. We all can be redeemed. Dr. Lisa Miller, psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Spiritual Child
The Many Lives of Mama Love is a masterclass in perseverance. This brilliant memoir is a reminder and inspiration that sometimes the only way out of suffering is to go straight through it. This book will leave you inspired and empowered to reveal your own most authentic self. Rich Roll, bestselling author of Finding Ultra and host of The Rich Roll Podcast
Grips you as suddenly as any psychological thriller...Readers will experience the lows and highs of addiction, incarceration and rehabilitation as Love Hardin assembles the pieces of her shattered life into something beautiful again in this inspiring chronicle. Bookpage

Lara Love Hardin is a literary agent and author. Previously co-CEO of Idea Architects, she is the founder of True Literary. Lara is a four-time New York Times bestselling co-writer, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life and the 2018 Oprah Book Club pick The Sun Does Shine, which she co-authored with Anthony Ray Hinton. In 2019 she won a Christopher Award for her work 'affirming the highest values of the human spirit', was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and shortlisted for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.