Paperback
-
SHIP THIS ITEMChoose Expedited Shipping at checkout for delivery by Thursday, April 4PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
“I was four years old when my father came back to kidnap me,” begins this gripping memoir about Matousek’s search for James Matousek, the drifter father he never knew. Matousek chronicles his compelling search for his own father by hiring a detective and reveals his own life as he follows the hard-bitten investigator from one dead-end to the next.
Described by the New York Times as “ part reminiscence, part detective story, part spiritual musing,” this memoir is more than the story of one man’s search for his father; it is also a look at the meaning of life and how fathers contribute to that meaning.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781958972045 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Monkfish Book Publishing Company |
Publication date: | 07/18/2023 |
Pages: | 280 |
Product dimensions: | 9.00(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.63(d) |
About the Author
Born in Los Angeles, Mark graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Universityof California, Berkeley in 1979, and received a fellowship to Worcester College, Oxford, after being awarded an M.A. in English Literature from UCLA in 1981. Upon graduation, he moved to New York, worked as a stringer for Reuters International, then in Newsweek’s letter department, before being hired as a proofreader at Andy Warhol’s Interview, where he became the magazine’s first staff writer and senior editor the following year. During his three years at Interview, he conducted hundreds of interviews with well-known figures in film, television, books, fine art, politics, design and science.
Mark left publishing in 1985 and spent most of the following decade as a freelance writer and dharma bum in Europe, India, and the United States. Shifting professional gears from pop culture to psychology, philosophy and spirituality, he was a contributing editor at Common Boundary, where his column “The Naked Eye” appeared from 1994-1999, and where his expose, “America’s Darkest Secret,” was nominated for a National Magazine Award. He contributed essays to anthologies including Wrestling with the Angel, Voices of the Millennium, Oprah’s Best Life, and A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer. Mark worked with Sogyal Rimpoche on The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and collaborated with writer Andrew Harvey on Dialogues with a Modern Mystic (and the British documentary of the same name). His first book, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (Riverhead) was published in 1996 and became an international bestseller in ten countries.
Mark was co-editor on Still Here, by Ram Dass, and published his second memoir in 2000, The Boy He Left Behind: A Man’s Search for His Lost Father (Los Angeles Times Discovery Book). 2008 brought When You’re Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living (Bloomsbury) and two years later, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life, (Doubleday), described by Daniel Goleman as a “a riveting, fun, and insightful tour of life’s meaning and purpose, essential reading for anyone drawn to the query, “How ought we to live?” Writing To Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery was published in 2017) followed shortly afterward by Mother of the Unseen World.
In 2013, Mark founded The Seekers Forum, a global online community for non-sectarian spiritual dialogue. He is on the faculty of The New York Open Center, The Omega Institute, 1440, Esalen, The Rowe Center, Hollyhock, and Omega Blue Spirit, Costa Rica. As a teacher and speaker, his work focuses on personal awakening and creative excellence through transformational writing and self-inquiry. His workshops, classes, and mentoring have inspired thousands of people around the world to reach their artistic and personal goals, which is the mission of his company Mark Matousek Media LLC. He is a co-founder of V-Men, the male arm of V-Day, Eve Ensler’s movement to end violence against women and girls, and lives with his partner, David Moore, in Springs, New York.
What People are Saying About This
Skillful, beautifully written, even suspenseful. The Boy He Left Behind is a deft and deeply penetrating search for a self, a past, a wholeness. I loved this book.
author of The Autobiography of a Face
A compelling story. Both funny and insightful. My kind of book about my kind of search. A very good read.
This thoughtful and lovingly rendered portrait of an American childhood is a refreshing addition to the genre. Matousek tells not only his own story but brilliantly evokes the troubled lives of his mother and sisters with humor, honesty, and above all, compassion.