Addiction

We have a handful of interviews devoted to books about addiction. Memoirs about addiction are recommended by Matt Rowland Hill, an expert on the genre (he read dozens of them while undergoing rehab himself) and author of Original Sins. If you're looking for a celebrity memoir on what it's like to be an addict, American-Canadian actor Matthew Perry's memoir is a very readable one (it's like hearing a funny friend telling you about the hell he's going through—Perry had no ghostwriter).

For a nonfiction book that sheds light on the prescription drug crisis in the US, and how that came about, look no further than Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, which reads like a thriller.

The Bangladeshi novelist Shazia Omar recommends novels about drug addiction, including On The Road by Jack Kerouac and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. She argues that “getting out of drugs has a lot to do with your frame of mind and the ability to become connected to something higher than yourself.”

Others take up a similar theme. Johann Hari discusses the war on drugs, arguing that it has completely failed by almost every single metric you care to use. Hari argues that drug addiction is far more environmentally determined than is allowed for and points to Portugal’s successful programs for reintegrating addicts. Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA School of Public Affairs, talks about the pros and cons of prohibition, arguing that prohibition can work, or at least have benefits, provided it’s done well, which it isn’t currently.

Louise Foxcroft chooses her best books on the history of medicine and addiction, looking at medical practices of the past, from treatment of madness and non-existent diseases, to drug use and the origins of hypochondria. Her own book, The Making of Addiction, looks at the use and abuse of opium in 19th-century Britain.