Overview

Raised in 1980s Madrid in the streets of San Blas, which bore the devastating scars of heroin addiction and crime, Jonathan Tepper's childhood was anything but ordinary. Born into a family of American missionaries driven by unwavering faith, Jonathan's home became a sanctuary for society's most broken - addicts, conmen, even murderers - pulled from the streets with the fragile hope of recovery. While others recoiled, Jonathan found friendship and family in those who joined his parents' centre, standing loyally beside them as they battled their demons. San Blas may have been Europe's heroin capital, but it was not the drugs, the alcohol or the violence that took so many lives. AIDS hit Spain a few years after it exploded in New York and, like an invisible plague, it claimed countless lives - including those who Jonathan came to love as brothers and sisters in the family rehabilitation centre. Unable to do anything but helplessly stand by, Jonathan, from a young age, had to confront the raw reality of grief and the fleeting nature of life itself. A powerful and deeply moving exploration of love, loss and faith, Shooting Up is also an enduring love letter to old friends and family, and a welcome reminder on how hope can unexpectedly arise in even the darkest places.

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9781408724958

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Reviews

In stark, often heart-rending prose, Jonathan tells the story of growing up with his three brothers and missionary parents in San Blas a drug overrun neighbourhood of Madrid. It is a tale of tragedy and triumph in the midst of loss and death. Ultimately, Shooting Up is a powerful testament to the redemptive power of faith, friendship, and love. I couldn't recommend it more highly; I cried, I laughed, I was changed -- Tom Webber, author of <i>Flying Over 96th Street: Memoir of an East Harlem White Boy</i> I too grew up as a home-schooled 'missionary kid' so I 'get' Jonathan Tepper's brilliant memoir Shooting Up. 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. Who else recalls his childhood with lines like these? -- ""As a graduation gift, my father took me to see drug rehabs. It was what we did as a family"" -- Frank Schaeffer, author of <i>Crazy for God</i> A bildungsroman with a difference, Shooting Up recounts a young man's coming of age in the unlikeliest of places, and finds joy, wisdom, and humour in the darkest of moments. Reading this book made me think anew about grace, and gratitude, and the hard roads that take us there -- Daniel Swift, author of <i>Bomber County and The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound</i> 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. Set amid the ravages of the AIDS epidemic in Madrid, 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 <i>My Two Italies</i> and <i>In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love</i> 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 <i>Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother</i> and <i>The Golden Gate</i>

In stark, often heart-rending prose, Jonathan tells the story of growing up in with his four brothers and missionary parents in San Blas a drug overrun neighbourhood of Madrid. It is a tale of tragedy and triumph in the midst of loss and death. Ultimately, Shooting Up is a powerful testament to the redemptive power of faith, friendship, and love. I couldn't recommend it more highly; I cried, I laughed, I was changed * Tom Webber, author of <i>Flying Over 96th Street: Memoir of an East Harlem White Boy</i> * I too grew up as a home-schooled 'missionary kid' so I 'get' Jonathan Tepper's brilliant memoir Shooting Up. 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. Who else recalls his childhood with lines like these? -- ""As a graduation gift, my father took me to see drug rehabs. It was what we did as a family"" -- Frank Schaeffer, author of <i>Crazy for God</i> A bildungsroman with a difference, Shooting Up recounts a young man's coming of age in the unlikeliest of places, and finds joy, wisdom, and humour in the darkest of moments. Reading this book made me think anew about grace, and gratitude, and the hard roads that take us there -- Daniel Swift, author of <i>Bomber County and The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound</i>

Author Information

Jonathan Tepper is the Chief Investment Officer at Prevatt Capital and lives in Nassau, The Bahamas. Jonathan is the founder of Variant Perception, which provided research to asset managers. Formerly, he was an analyst at SAC Capital and a Vice President on the proprietary trading desk at Bank of America. Along the way, with his friend and partner Turi Munthe, they founded Demotix, a citizen-journalism website and photo agency. They sold Demotix in 2012 to Corbis, a company owned then by Bill Gates. Jonathan is a Rhodes Scholar and graduated with highest honors in history and honors in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has an MLitt from the University of Oxford. Jonathan is the author of three books on economics: Endgame, Code Red and The Myth of Capitalism.

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