Tragedy Plus Time

From the cocreator, writer, and star of the TruTV sitcom Those Who Can’t, and one of Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch,” this is Adam Cayton-Holland’s “heartbreaking work of genius” (Booklist) about the comedian’s relationship with his younger sister, who took her own life.

Meet the Magnificent Cayton-Hollands, a trio of brilliant and precocious teenagers from Denver, destined to change the world. Anna, Adam, and Lydia were taught by their father, a civil rights lawyer, and mother, an investigative journalist, to recognize injustice and have their hearts wide open to the universe. They grew up raised on the belief that to live meant to absorb everything that came their way—the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking.

Adam chose to meet life’s tough breaks and cruel realities with stand-up comedy; his older sister chose law. However, their youngest sister, Lydia, wrestled with depression and ultimately took her own life—a devastating tragedy that struck the Cayton-Holland family at the same moment Adam’s comedy career was finally getting off the ground. This revelatory and “darkly poignant” (Kirkus Reviews) memoir is Adam’s story of how he learned to move forward in the wake of unimaginable tragedy.

Both a moving tribute to a lost sibling and an “inspiring, tragic, and at times heartrendingly funny” (People) guide to navigating loss, Tragedy Plus Time is “essential reading for anyone who has ever lost someone, anyone who has ever grieved someone, or anyone who has ever loved someone” (Kumail Nanjiani, Academy Award-nominated writer and star of The Big Sick).