Toil & Trouble: A Memoir

About this book

From the number one New York Times bestselling author comes another stunning memoir that is tender touching...and just a little spooky. "Heres a partial list of things I dont believe in: God. The Devil. Heaven. Hell. Bigfoot. Ancient Aliens. Past lives. Vampires. Zombies. Homeopathy. Bigfoot. Canola oil because theres no such thing as a canola. Note that "witches" and "witchcraft" are absent from this list. When really they should be right there at the top. The thing is I wouldnt believe in them and I would privately ridicule any idiot who did except for one thing: I am a witch." --From Toil & Trouble For as long as Augusten Burroughs could remember he knew things he shouldnt have known. He manifested things that shouldnt have come to pass. And he told exactly no one about this save one person: his mother. His mother reassured him that it was all perfectly normal that he was descended from a long line of witches going back to the days of the early American colonies. And that this family tree was filled with witches. It was a bond that he and his mother shared - until the day she left him in the care of her psychiatrist to be raised in his family (but thats a whole other story). After that Augusten was on his own. On his own to navigate the world of this tricky power; on his own to either use or misuse this gift. From the hilarious to the terrifying Toil & Trouble is a chronicle of one mans journey to understand himself to reconcile the powers he can wield with things with which he is helpless. There are very few things that are coincidences as you will learn in Toil & Trouble. Ghosts are real trees can want to kill you beavers are the spawn of satan houses are alive and in the end love is the most powerful magic of all.