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A Million Little Pieces is a 2003 book by American writer James Frey. It was marketed as a memoir, but it turned out that the author invented many of his story’s details. The book tells the story of James’s journey to recovery from addiction and how he dealt with other people in rehab.

James wakes up on a plane. When he lands, his parents are there to greet him. They take him to rehab the next day because they’re horrified by how he looks after breaking his nose and several teeth while flying in the plane.

James goes to a drugstore and meets Lilly, who helps him get through his withdrawal. He also gets to know Leonard, who is the boss of a mafia group. These two people help James as he tries to overcome his addiction.

James was still struggling with his addiction, and he had a lot of anger. He left the clinic because he didn’t like it there. His brother Leonard followed him to persuade James to come back. After that, James’s parents called him and asked if they could join him at the clinic for family counseling sessions. However, James refused because he wanted to take responsibility for his own recovery, but this only made things worse as he couldn’t complete any tasks or continue with the Twelve Step program.

Leonard tells James about his traumatic childhood and how he started using drugs. As Leonard is telling the story, he starts to cry, which surprises James because of the respect he has for him. Lilly passes a note to James asking him to meet her outside; they start an affair that breaks the rules of their clinic. Lilly tells James that she was sold into prostitution as a child.

Despite James’ objections to joining the family program, his parents come anyway. During their counseling sessions, they learn that when he was a child, he had an ear infection and that his parents left it untreated even though it caused him great distress. They also learned for the first time that his grandfather was an alcoholic. His parents and counselor suggest these facts might offer some explanation for James’s addiction but he continues to insist that it is entirely personal responsibility. He leaves on friendly terms with his father who has a business engagement elsewhere

Lilly learns that her grandmother is terminally ill and doesn’t have long to live. She leaves the clinic and James follows her. Two of the clinic’s staff, Hank and Lincoln, follow James, offering to help him. Lilly has been selling sex in order to buy crack cocaine. However, she chooses not to take it because she wants a new course of treatment at the clinic instead of more drugs.

In the end, James finally accepts his past and Leonard’s help. He faces criminal charges as a result of his involvement in the robbery that killed Lilly’s parents. However, he is sentenced to only three years in jail instead of fifteen for good behavior. James suspects that Leonard had something to do with it since there was no logical explanation for why he got such a lenient sentence. Later on, when Leonard is due to check out of the clinic, he pays for Lilly’s second round of treatment and tells him that he sees him as a son.

James is going to jail for a year. A few days before he goes, he tells a priest that one year earlier, he beat up a French priest who had sexually propositioned him.

James asks his brother Bob to take him to a bar. James is upset, but he convinces Bob by saying that he really wants it. When they arrive at the bar, James takes forty dollars from his brother and orders a pint of whiskey. He looks at himself in the glass and asks the bartender to pour it away because he doesn’t like how he looks when drinking alcohol.