A Million Little Pieces proceeded to outsell any book ever featured on Oprah's book club, swiftly becoming the No 1 paperback non-fiction book on the New York Times bestseller list for 15 weeks, as well as the No 1 seller on Amazon, and was published in 22 languages worldwide. In a show christened The Man Who Kept Oprah Awake at Night, various tearful Oprah employees appeared to declare the book 'revelatory' and an emotional Winfrey announced, ' like nothing you've ever read before. In September 2005, however, something unexpected happened: A Million Little Pieces was selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club - making Frey the first living author to be chosen in more than three years. To begin with it sold fairly well, as did its sequel, My Friend Leonard, which recounted the now sober Frey's life after rehab and a jail sentence. It is a brutal, foul-mouthed, utterly compelling book.

In one memorable scene he undergoes back-to-back root-canal surgery, but as he is in withdrawal he is forced to weather the entire procedure without anaesthetic, pressing his pain into two tennis balls until his fingernails crack. Over the course of 500 pages he wrestles a swarthy rage he names 'the Fury', battens down his cravings, sprays spit and snot and blood and urine, recounts his misdemeanours, finds friendship, and falls in love. Published in 2003, it is a memoir of the author's time as a 23-year-old alcoholic drug addict and former criminal in a rehabilitation centre in the American midwest. Frey is the author of A Million Little Pieces, one of the bestselling books of recent years.

A million little things james frey