ONE HELL OF A PARADISE
Andrea Von Stumm

‘I used to drink to forget. Now I drink to remember.’ The words are written at the start of a journey ‘to a country where some people have their money laundered, though I go to have my body cleaned and my brain washed.’

The destination, a Swiss clinic, offers an intensive course in dynamic therapies. Aleana (as the author refers to herself) soon has no choice except to confront her life’s demons as these emerge in considering her relationships with friends and former lovers, her parents and her husband. In striving to fulfil her long-held ambition to be writer, she also keeps a diary. The result is a narrative of compelling honesty, illuminated by stories that arise from within herself, from the clinical personnel and her fellow patients.

Quartet has established an enviable reputation for publishing vivid evocations of the seductive, destructive power of addiction. One Hell of a Paradise is yet another iconic memoir, to be read alongside our editions of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation (ISBN: 978 07043 02488) and Caroline Knapp’s Drinking: A Love Story (978 07043 80509).

Andrea von Stumm was born in Germany and attended schools, first in Paris then Switzerland. She spent her twenties in Madrid and London, and graduated from the LSE before working in publishing and literary journalism. She moved to Spain ten years ago, where, as she says, ‘counting in French, swearing in English ... improving her German ... while reading mostly in Spanish, she suffers from delusions of adequacy in all four languages.’ One Hell of a Paradise is her first book.