Mot: A Memoir [Hardcover]

SARAH EINSTEIN is a doctoral candidate in creative nonfiction at Ohio University. Her work has appeared in journals such as The Sun, Ninth Letter, PANK, and Fringe and has been awarded a Pushcart Prize. She is also a special topics editor for Brevity.

At forty, Sarah Einstein is forced to face her own shortcomings. In the wake of an attempted sexual assault, she must come to terms with the facts that she is not tough enough for her job managing a local drop-in center for adults with mental illness and that her new marriage is already faltering. Just as she reaches her breaking point, she meets Mot, a homeless veteran who lives a life dictated by frightening delusion. She is drawn to the brilliant ways he has found to lead his own difficult life; traveling to Romania to get his teeth fixed because the United States doesn’t offer dental care to the indigent, teaching himself to use computers in public libraries, and even taking university classes while living out of doors.

Mot: A Memoir is the story of their unlikely friendship and explores what we can, and cannot, do for a person we love. In unsparing prose and with a sharp eye for detail, Einstein brings the reader into the world of Mot’s delusions and illuminates a life that would otherwise be hidden from us.

A memoir of sharing vulnerability, unlikely friendships, and letting goStruggling in her marriage and as director of a drop-in center for adults with mental illness, the author meets a delusional, sixty-five-year-old homeless man. A moving, fully human portrait of the surprising companionship that grows between them, Mot shows us that to save others is to save ourselves.Sarah Einstein is a natural storyteller, and her careful portrait of her mentally ill, homeless friend Mot is unflinching. Mot, A Memoir is heartblSk