Living to Tell: Confessions of an Alcoholic, Schizophrenic, Sexually Traumatized, Anxious, HIV-Infected Man

Begun at the suggestion of his psychotherapist as a series of autobiographical vignettes, Walter Kathans Living to Tell is a moving portrait of a man struggling to escape the grip of addiction and mental illness in pursuit of a normal life. From his childhood traumas to the onset of schizophrenia in early adulthood, his crippling panic attacks to his self-medication with alcohol and his devastating HIV diagnosis, Kathan offers an unsparing account of his hellish journey to the depths of madness and despair. Yet amid the chaos and misery he must endure remains an ever-present ray of hope; he never gives up the fight to reclaim his life from the darkness. Kathans story is one of spirit and strength against all odds as he battles to overcome his demonsand lives to tell the tale.

Born the fifth of nine children in Rockingham, Vermont, Walter Kathan traveled extensively through Southeast Asia and the South Pacific during his tenure as a Merchant Marine and has lived in San Francisco, Boston, and West Palm Beach. Now residing in Brattleboro, Vermont, Kathan enjoys Afro-Cuban percussion, meteorology, geography, languages, and culinary arts.