Shooting Up: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Addiction

Shooting Up chronicles Tepper’s childhood growing up in Madrid’s San Blas neighborhood, where his missionary parents founded a groundbreaking drug rehabilitation center during the height of Spain’s heroin epidemic. It is a tale of addiction, recovery, and loss seen through the eyes of an American boy navigating between his family’s dedication to helping others and the harsh realities of AIDS during a time of needle sharing. With lyrical prose and sharp-eyed honesty, he delivers an exceptionally powerful story of love and compassion. Shooting Up is a quietly devastating coming-of-age memoir that is as unsettling as it is unforgettable—a haunting exploration of belief, belonging, and the costs of sacrifice.

BOOK REVIEWS
"[An] extraordinary coming-of-age story" -- Spectator

"A terrific story . . . You want an evocative account of the missionary experience? Here it is. A bracing social history of Aids in Spain? It does that too. But if it's misery you're after, look elsewhere. This is a memoir full of hope." The Times

"a moving portrait of childhood..." "Tepper’s writing is as finely crafted as one would expect of someone so well read" The Times Literary Supplement

"A remarkable, true-life story about an American family offering salvation in Spain’s slums." "an unadorned coming-of-age memoir rooted in faith and humble acts of service." Our Verdict GET IT Kirkus

"Riveting memoir exploring missionary work, addiction, and human kindness... This rousing memoir chronicles Tepper’s upbringing with his missionary parents" Booklife

"In an age of declining curiosity and shrinking intellects, Tepper shows us a better way. It's rare to read a book that merits comparison with Alcott, Dickens, and Defoe, but he has done it. This book deserves a place on the shelf alongside those classics. It's one of the year's best books." The US Review of Books

"Told in straightforward, inviting prose, the memoir feels nearly like a conversation. It’s genuine and heartfelt and important." Virginia Reeves, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

ADVANCE PRAISE
"Shooting Up is an extraordinary memoir of a unique childhood among heroin addicts during the AIDS epidemic, but it is a universal story of love and loss that is powerfully moving."
George Stephanopoulos, political commentator and Good Morning America and ABC Sunday News anchor

"Shooting Up is an astonishing work that opens your eyes—and your heart—to a whole new world, one that is as beautiful and inspiring as it is gritty and harrowing. Jonathan Tepper is an extraordinarily gifted writer who has somehow managed to write a memoir that is at once heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and joyous."
Amy Chua, Yale Law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and The Golden Gate

“Jonathan Tepper’s gut-wrenching, inspiring memoir Shooting Up immerses you so deeply in its characters that you feel as if you’re living—and suffering—alongside them... this gorgeously crafted coming-of-age story is both luminous and profoundly humane. An unforgettable read that’s impossible to put down.”
Joseph Luzzi, author of My Two Italies and In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love

“Tepper’s story about addiction, AIDS and his parents’ work with addicts in Spain in the 1990s is a one-off insanely entertaining and wild account. In fact it’s the most riveting memoir I’ve ever read."
Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy for God