In the spring of 2007, a brilliant computer programmer named Hans Reiser stands
accused of murdering his estranged wife, Nina. Despite a mountain of
circumstantial evidence against him, he proclaims his innocence. The case takes
a twist when Nina's former lover, and Hans's former best friend, Sean Sturgeon,
confesses to eight unrelated murders that no one has ever heard of. At the
time of Sturgeon's confession, Stephen Elliot is paralyzed by writer's block, in
the thrall of Adderall dependency, and despondent over the state of his romantic
life. But he is fascinated by Sturgeon, whose path he has often crossed in San
Francisco's underground S&M scene. What kind of person, he wonders,
confesses to a murder he likely did not commit? One answer is, perhaps, a man
like Elliott's own father. So begins a riveting journey through a neon
landscape of false confessions, self-medication, and torturous sex. Set against
the backdrop of a nation at war, in the declining years of the Silicon Valley
tech boom and the dawn of Paris Hilton's celebrity, "The Adderall Diaries" is at
once a gripping account of a murder trial and a scorching investigation of the
self. Tough, tender, and unflinchingly honest, it is the breakout book by one of
the most daring writers of his generation.