Unstitched

My Journey to Understand Opioid Addiction and How People and Communities Can Heal

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Pub Date 14 Sep 2021 | Archive Date 06 Sep 2021

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Description

What if society looked at addiction without judgement?
 
Unstitched shares the powerful story of one librarian’s quest to understand the impact of addiction fed by stigma and inevitable secrecy.

The opioid epidemic has hit people in communities large and small and across all socio-economic classes. What should each of us know about it, and do about it?
 
Unstitched moves readers from feelings of helplessness and blame into empathy, ultimately helping friends, family, and community members separate the disease of addiction from the person underneath.

A stranger, rumored to be a heroin addict, repeatedly breaks into the small-town library Brett Ann Stanciu runs. After she tries to get law enforcement to take meaningful action against him—elementary school children and young parents with babies frequent the place after all—he dies by suicide. When she realizes how little she knows about opioid misuse, she sets out on a mission, seeking insight from others, such as people in recovery, treatment providers, the town police chief, and Vermont's US attorney.
 
Stanciu’s journey leads to compassionate generosity, renewed faith, and ultimately a measure of personal redemption as she realizes she has a role to play in helping the people of her community stitch themselves back together.
What if society looked at addiction without judgement?
 
Unstitched shares the powerful story of one librarian’s quest to understand the impact of addiction fed by stigma and inevitable secrecy.

The...

Advance Praise


 “This is a deeply compassionate and extremely important book” — The Deerfield Valley News

"The opioid crisis darts jagged all around us, if we but open our eyes to it.  Unstitched deftly lays out the groundwork for the crisis but also probes deeply into the personal, bringing the reader face to face with stories of tragedy and loss, courage and great strength as well as just plain luck, good and bad. Brett Ann Stanciu is brutally honest about the jaws of addiction, candid and clear-eyed on a subject often avoided by so many. In our small state the notion of community holds us together at all levels, as, in fact, community flourishes most places. Within lies perhaps the greatest hope to meet this dire need. For many of us, Unstitched serves not only as a much-needed introduction but a vital resource to be returned to, over and again." — Jeffrey Lent, author of In the Fall and Before We Sleep

"Powerful! An exploration through education of substance misuse disorder and its impact on small town idyllic Vermont. The personal redemption and recovery story of the writer is beautifully interwoven with insights into stigma, opioid misuse and finally recovery through purpose, community and connection. Beautifully crafted and a must read for anyone affected by substance misuse disorder." —  Fawn D. Montanye, Executive Director Vermont Recovery Network
 

"Unstitched is riveting, compassionate, topical, and one of the best books I've read this year. Stanciu, in beautiful prose, takes on the impact of the opioid epidemic on a small Vermont town with the gusto and suspense of a fine mystery novel, and the empathy that only a truly fine observer of the human condition could muster. Highly recommended." —   Thomas Christopher Greene, author of The Perfect Liar
 
“The shift in scale throughout Unstitched — from a tiny Vermont library, from one person’s annoyance with one addict’s break-ins, to the global scope of the opioid epidemic — is gut-wrenching. In a memoir that is generous and capacious at the same time that it is intimate, difficult, and finely wrought, readers will be carried by this deftly woven investigation into addiction in a small town. I didn’t want to read this book, given my own family’s loss, and then I couldn’t put it down. Unstitched is the book about addiction that everyone needs to read — if we are ever to understand what needs to be done.” — Kerrin McCadden, author of Keep This To Yourself
 
"Unstitched should be mandatory reading. It is a heartbreaking, raw, tender and revelatory look at addiction and its pervasive grip on ourselves, our families, our communities, and our rural towns. This book undid me as I read — taking me into the heart of suffering, revealing my own habits, biases and fears — and then it gathered those pieces together and braided them into something new: a vision of hope, connection, possibility and healing for us all." —   Robin MacArthur, author of Heart Spring Mountain and Half Wild
 
“While Unstitched begins as a true crime memoir set in an idyllic small Vermont town, soon it explodes into an exploration about ‘the ugliness of poverty, the ravages of drug addiction’ as Stanciu studies our nation’s and her own addiction crises. Stanciu shines a light on the things we don’t want to see: drug and alcohol abuse spread throughout our hometowns, including her own. Stanciu’s beautiful light, and stunning writing, transforms those who are considered ‘once a junkie, always a junkie,’ into our friends and neighbors — where ‘recovery is possible’ and ‘we are alike.’” —   Sean Prentiss, author of Finding Abbey and Crosscut: Poems
 
"With this thoughtful and thought-provoking book, Brett Stanciu shines a light on the twin tragedies of addiction and suicide that have infiltrated every family in America, even more so during the pandemic . . . Addiction, and all the dark aspects associated with it, is a subject I'd like to ignore. But ignoring it isn't going to help or make it go away, and Brett's book has led me to re-examine what I could do to be part of the solution.  This book may provide a lifeline to someone in need, and might begin a conversation that saves a life.” — Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, author of As Long As There Are Mountains and The Canada Geese Quilt
 
“Beautifully crafted and researched, this book is for everyone, whether you’ve known the secret pain of addiction in your family or seen it ravaging your community. A luminous act of compassion and courage.” — Diana Whitney, author of You Don’t Have to Be Everything
 
With compassion, curiosity, and a fine eye for detail, Brett Ann Stanciu takes us on an unforgettable journey into the world of addiction and recovery in rural Vermont. The result is a beautiful and affecting story about the resilience of spirit and of community, at precisely the time we most need an abundance of both. — Ben Hewitt, author of The Town That Food Saved and Homegrown
 
"I took a sobering read through this book because it focuses a lot on community, conversation, Vermont and the effects/impacts of substance abuse on all lives involved." —    Jason Broughton, Vermont State Librarian & Commissioner

 




 “This is a deeply compassionate and extremely important book” — The Deerfield Valley News

"The opioid crisis darts jagged all around us, if we but open our eyes to it. Unstitched deftly lays out the...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781586422691
PRICE $15.00 (USD)
PAGES 224

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Featured Reviews

Unstitched by Brett Ann Stanciu takes a heartwrenching look at addicts as the people they are not the drug they are addicted to. Using the metaphor of a sweater unraveling, Stanciu demonstrates the interconnectedness of people in a small town in a time where our world is experiencing an increase in opioid addiction that is growing to crisis and endemic levels. This story is not so much about ending this crisis, but in examining how we can be neighbours and support others in our communities and the impact your actions have, both negatively and positively, on the people around you. Definitely a worthwhile read! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

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