$16.95  Retail  $14.41 Online Price
 ISBN 13: 978-1-931816-02-1
 218 main text, 240 total pages
9"x6" (Quality paperback)

Reviews
Readers' Comments
 

Reviews:
Bill W., A Strange Salvation is a novel based on the life of Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Wilson founded AA in the 1930's after suffering his own excessive drinking problems for years. Although driven to a higher purpose, all of his life, his greatest achievement―sobriety for himself and thousands of others was not enough. A deep depression filled his mind and his soul for almost twelve years.

 This book asks gut-wrenching, soul-searching questions that reach deep into the psyche of readers, both those who have experienced alcoholism and those that have not. The questions are universally relevant and inspire readers to search for their own truths.

 Author, Paul Hourihan was committed to the spiritual path for over 45 years. A graduate of Boston University, his personal experience includes the writing of more than a dozen books as well as the teaching of courses on mystics and mysticism. In this book, Mr. Hourihan takes us on a perceptive journey during which we delve deeply into the causes and the effects of Bill Wilson's depression. The author provides us with a possible answer and the discovery of the "strange salvation" which may have saved Wilson from a worst fate.

 A profound, in-depth study of the subject in an easy to read novel format, this book is enlightening.
                                             - Shirley Roe, Allbooks Reviews

This fictionalized biography is well done, giving many insights into a man who, though he helped many, still fought a troubling depression. The information is presented in an interesting format―a most readable book.
                           - Comments from Writer's Digest Self-Published Awards entry

Readers' Comments

I've so enjoyed the book....just lent it to an AA sister yesterday.....very provocative read!!                    
                                            - A Reader from Martinez, CA.

Paul Hourihan, with care and detail, has managed to focus on a major inner conflict that haunted Bill Wilson for many years after he got sober. Hourihan allows us a glimpse into the soul of an iconic man known to many simply as Bill W.   Bill W., A Strange Salvation gives us a liberal view of this reluctant hero during a period of tormenting self-doubts, revelations, and his fear of betraying other alcoholics that still suffered.
                                          - Peter Wright, author of A Drop of the Hard Stuff:
                                            A Sea Captain's Recovery from Alcoholism

Bill W.  A Strange Salvation is a unique, spiritually-driven investigation into the life of  Bill Wilson, the founder of the world-famed Alcoholics Anonymous movement, and features new and intriguing information about  the reasons for his lesser known 11 year depression which occurred after the years of his successes, and how he finally overcame it.  It is written in the form of  a "philosophical novel" with carefully honed insights.

It is the author's intentions  (as a teacher with a PhD. in English, and a spiritual seeker and advocate himself with  45 years on the spiritual path) to also journey inwards towards the latter stages of Bill W's life as well.  In that period, Bill W. also encountered Eastern spiritual philosophy, ideas & practitioners such as world-famed psychologist Carl Jung, and famed East-West authors such as Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard and their influences.  The novel also probes into the indeed provocative question―"Could Bill Wilson's prolonged depression have served a higher purpose, and thereby saving him from a 'worse fate'?"

For general readers, and people on the path of the time-honored and proven 12 Step Programs, as well as those seeking the correlations between recovery and meditative insights, this book provides further illuminations.      
                                                       - Jon Bono, coauthor of The Healing Mind, (21st Century
                                            Buddhist Techniques)