A mother traces her daughter's years-long battle with addiction in this compelling memoir that opens a raw and honest dialogue about substance abuse.

A mother’s first, most basic instinct is to protect her child. Christine Naman’s daughter Natalie was the light of her life. She was a spirited child with sparkling eyes who was growing up and finding her way in the world. But by adolescence, she had ended up on the wrong road, meeting the wrong kind of people. Natalie was a full-blown addict, caught in a self-destructive spiral that was destroying her life and taking her family along for the nightmarish journey. Christine wondered how she could have missed the warning signs. Was there anything she could do to save Natalie from herself?  

About Natalie tells one woman’s heartbreaking story, one that is played out in homes across the country, and reveals the rollercoaster of emotions that loving an addict unearths. There is despair and joy; denial and acceptance; rage and tranquility.  Christine’s reflections as she traces her daughter’s life are interspersed with Natalie’s compelling poems that tell the unvarnished truth of her side of this struggle: “I have handcuffs on/And no one can see them/My screams are so loud /Yet no one can hear ‘em”. 

By sharing the difficult days of isolation, pain, and humiliation that being the parent of an addict can bring, Naman offers comfort and consolation to others in similar circumstances. Ultimately, About Natalie is a story of loving no matter what, keeping the faith, battling hard, and getting back on the right road. 

Christine Pisera Naman is the author Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11, Faces of Hope: Ten Years Later, Faces of Hope at Eighteen, Caterpillar Kisses, Christmas Lights, The Novena, and The Believers. She lives with her husband Peter and her children Jason, Natalie, and Trevor in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.