Description:

For almost a decade, beloved storyteller E. Lynn Harris has welcomed you into his family with his passionate, warm and trail-blazing novels. Now, he invites you into the most intimate world ever--his own.

Since his first book Invisible Life was published in the early 1990s, New York Times bestselling author E. Lynn Harris has wowed, charmed and romanced millions of readers. As a master storyteller, E. Lynn Harris has created an intimate and glamorous world centered around his signature themes of love, friendship and family. People all over the world have fallen in love with his characters and laughed and cried with them.

Now, in his most daring act yet, E. Lynn Harris writes the memoir of his life–from his childhood in Arkansas as a closeted gay boy through his struggling days as a self-published author to his rise as a New York Times bestselling author. In What Becomes of the Brokenhearted , E. Lynn Harris shares an extraordinary life touched by loneliness and depression, but more important, he reveals the triumphant life of a small-town dreamer who was able through writing to make his dreams–and more–come true. **

From Publishers Weekly

Widely known for his sexy, urban African-American novels (A Love of My Own, etc.), Harris now reveals the inspiring story of his own life. Harris's smooth, Southern accent and conversational tone immediately put listeners at ease, and the heartfelt, unpretentious candor of his narration more than makes up for any details lost in the abridged audio translation. Convinced he would die "one of the brokenhearted," Harris recalls his struggles with his abusive father, his 1990 suicide attempt, his battle with depression and his first gay relationship. Though much of the memoir focuses on the difficulties he faces growing up poor in a small town and of a race that largely considered his homosexuality "inappropriate," the author's underlying message-that you can triumph through perseverance-is universal. Harris leavens his narrative with humorous anecdotes, including a particularly funny reminiscence of his first days at IBM, where he wore shiny suits from Sears, gold chains and sported the "world's largest Afro." Hearing Harris explain how he moved beyond his self-hatred and self-doubt to become the happy, successful author he is today should motivate listeners to make their own "happy endings."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

"I set out to write a story for me . . . that would capture the pain and joy of being black and gay. I wanted it to be a love story," Harris says in explanation of his first novel, Invisible Life (1991), which he wrote after years of alcoholism, joblessness, and depression, and after losing friends and a successful lifestyle that once included driving a Mercedes (later repossessed). Raised just a step above welfare in Arkansas and repeatedly and brutally beaten by his stepfather, Ben, Harris for decades carried deep-seated feelings of inferiority and anxiety about being born out of wedlock, about being poor, and about being "different," which he later learned consisted of being gay. His young manhood was a series of drunken flings punctuated by occasional, ill-fated romances that left him ever lonelier and more tearful in his quest for love. When the deaths of friends spurred him to write, the creative act helped him mature into the confident, best-selling author he is now. His fans will embrace his fast-paced memoir eagerly, and then be caught up in this engaging writer's engagingly told life story. Whitney Scott
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