The Lost Chapters

Finding Recovery and Renewal One Book at a Time

By: Leslie Schwartz

Narrated by: Leslie Schwartz

Leslie Schwartz's powerful, skillfully woven memoir of redemption and reading, as told through the list of books she read as she served a 90 day jail sentence.

In 2014, novelist Leslie Schwartz was sentenced to 90 days in Los Angeles County Jail for a DUI and battery of an officer. It was the most harrowing and holy experience of her life.

Following a 414-day relapse into alcohol and drug addiction after more than a decade clean and sober, Schwartz was sentenced and served her time with only six months' sobriety. The damage she inflicted that year upon her friends, her husband, her teenage daughter, and herself was nearly impossible to fathom. Incarceration might have ruined her altogether, if not for the stories that sustained her while she was behind bars - both the artful tales in the books she read while there, and, more immediately, the stories of her fellow inmates. With classics like Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome to contemporary accounts like Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, Schwartz's reading list is woven together with visceral recollections of both her daily humiliations and small triumphs within the county jail system. Through the stories of others - whether rendered on the page or whispered in a jail cell - she learned powerful lessons about how to banish shame, use guilt for good, level her grief, and find the lost joy and magic of her astonishing life.

Told in vivid, unforgettable prose, The Lost Chapters uncovers the nature of shame, rage, and love, and how instruments of change and redemption come from the unlikeliest of places.

©2018 Leslie Schwartz (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Schwartz's razor-sharp observations on life behind bars, the prison system and the women caught in an endless cycle of abuse, addiction and incarceration is captivating and tremendously moving. Her sobering tale is beautifully told.” (Shelf Awareness, starred review)

"The author’s heartfelt story of self-acceptance and redemption will captivate readers with its honesty, vulnerability, and array of memorable characters.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

“[An] intimate and affecting memoir…Schwartz demonstrates her gift as a storyteller as she shows us what it looks and feels like to be behind bars...sublime and even exalting.” (Jewish Journal)

Heady and beautiful

The sheer intelligence in the writing and undeniable truths, bring the reader into time and space enveloping the mind like you yourself are the prisoner.

We are all guilty and we are all beautiful. The facts of our oppressive society that has no hope for improvement or change is palpable. A real contemplative read, leaving one hopeful and hopeless all at once.

Love this Book!!

it is inspirational!! I read it in one day!! I recommend it to anyone dealing with the heartache of what alcohol can do to a person, a family... just read it!! You will be happy you did!!

Thoughtful, funny, and inspiring.

I at times felt that the author had a bit of a superiority complex that she intended to hide. She isn't a great writer, but I think that it was a strong attempt to write a book that would benefit people struggling with depression and substance abuse.The raw honesty was appealing, however there were moments in the writing that she didn't seem as honest as she could have been. Overall, I liked it. Enjoyable, just could have been so much better with more perspective on the author.

Writing that is evocative and literary

I loved the authors descriptions, characterizations and metaphors. She made each scene come alive. But I also appreciated her use of the reflective, narrative voice especially approaching the end of the story. Very poignant.