The clinical side of addiction-a disease that takes the lives of over 150,000 people a year-is written about, analyzed and hotly debated by media outlets the world round.

As a result of the overwhelming attention to the facts and figures, the personal side often gets neglected.

The Addiction Diaries: Stories of Darkness, Hope and All That Falls in Between is here to remedy that. By turns amusing and insightful, disturbing and illuminating, 18 writers from all socioeconomic levels, races and relationships with addiction share stories that will stay with you long after you read them.

A woman trying to save her brother from his gambling addiction. A child heroin user who recovers and finds a calm life. A mother of two addicts who watches them go from jail to freedom. A former bank robber reflecting on nearly two decades of sobriety. Some of the stories may rattle, disturb and bemuse you; all will illuminate addiction like nothing that has come before.

An instant classic in the addiction recovery genre, The Addiction Diaries will leave you astounded by the triumph of the human spirit and give you an understanding of addiction that goes far beyond the headlines.