Finding Fish - Softcover

Fisher, Antwone Q.; Rivas, Mim Eichler

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060539860 ISBN 13: 9780060539863

Publisher: Harper Torch, 2002

Synopsis

A New York Times bestseller, Finding Fish is the remarkable story of an African American boy abandoned in an abusive foster home in Cleveland who rises to liberation, manhood, and extraordinary success (in Hollywood).

Born in prison to a single mother after his father was shot and killed, Antwone Fisher soon became a ward of Cleveland's foster care system. By the time he was five years old, he had been transferred to several different families. Eventually he came to live with the Picketts, an older couple with grown children of their own.

During his stay with the Picketts, which lasted until he was 17 years old, Antwone suffered near–constant verbal and physical abuse at the hands of ?zz Pickett, and sexual abuse from a neighbour. The damage to his self–esteem was tremendous, yet Antwone managed to resist the gang–like behaviour and drug use that so many of his friends were engaged in. Finally he fled and before long he was living on the streets, homeless. Again rescuing himself, he enlisted in the Navy, where he created a ?mily' for himself and with the help of a Navy psychologist worked through his past. After he left the Navy, while working as a security guard at Sony Pictures in Hollywood, he told his story to one of the executives there, who encouraged him to write his life as a screenplay.

Antwone Quenton Fisher was raised in institutions from the moment his single mother gave birth to him in prison. As a foster child, he suffered more than a dozen years of abandonment and physical abuse, until he escaped and forged a life on the streets. Just as his life was about to hit rock bottom, Fisher enlisted in the U.S. Navy-a decision that would ultimately save him. There, he became a man and discovered a loving family he never had. Through it all, Fisher refused to allow his spirit to be broken and never gave up on his dreams of a better day.

“Fisher’s gripping memoir is an inspiring story of one man’s journey, a tale of strength of the individual over the challenges of life.”-Chicago Tribune

About this title

Review

Finding Fish reads like a great work of fiction, moving me alternately to tears and laughter, sorrow and joy, and making me forget at times that the story is astonishingly true (Denzel Washington ?This stunning autobiography rises above the success fables from survivors of America?s inner cities...this engrossing book is a classic? Publisher?s Weekly ?Fisher?s gripping memoir is an inspiring story of one man?s journey, a tale o as does his retroactive tenderness toward the boy no one else loved? Time)

About the Author

Antwone Quenton Fisher is a leading Hollywood screenwriter. In 1993, he was working as a security guard at Sony Pictures Entertainment when by chance he met Todd Black, a young film producer. When Antwone Fisher told Black his life story, Black was so bowled over with what he heard that he paid Fisher a salary to write his autobiography. The book, Finding Fish, went on to be a bestseller in the States: film rights were bought by Denzel Washington who has directed the film and acted in it. Antwone Fisher lives in Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Torch
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060539860
• ISBN 13: 9780060539863
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback