by Augusten Burroughs
(4.1 / 5)

BLURB

The beautiful memoir that is tender, touching… and just a little spooky comes from the number one best-selling author of the New York Times.

“Here’s a partial list of things I don’t believe in: God. The Devil. Heaven. Hell. Satan. Ancient aliens. Past lives. Vampires. Zombies. Homeopathy. Illuminati. Canola oil, because there’s no such thing as canola. Remember that’ witches’ and’ witchcraft’ are omitted from this list. If they really should be right there at the top. He witnessed events that were not supposed to have happened. And that’s exactly what he told no one, save one person: his mother.

His mother assured him that everything was perfectly normal, that he had come down from a long line of witches, going back to the days of the early American colonies. And that this tree of the family was full of witches. It was a connection he and his mother shared-until the day she left him to be raised in his family in the care of her psychiatrist (but that’s a whole different story).

Augusten was on his own after that. Navigating the world of this tricky power on its own; using or misusing this gift on its own.

Toil & Trouble is, from the amusing to the frightening, a chronicle of the journey of one person to understand himself, to reconcile the forces he can exert with those he is powerless to. As you will learn in Toil & Trouble, there are very few things that are coincidences.

Ghosts are real, trees will destroy you, beavers are satan’s spawn, houses are alive, and ultimately love is the most powerful magic of all.