At first, silence felt holy. Then the music started—and nothing was ever the same.
In the gripping second volume of his memoir series, Chaz Holesworth steps out of the wreckage of his Philadelphia childhood and into a new wilderness: adolescence, longing, awakening, and the dangerous freedom of life beyond the rules that once defined him.
Raised in a world where faith meant fear and obedience meant survival, Chaz enters his teenage years numb and isolated. Emotions are weakness. Questions are sin. Desire is the enemy. But when first love cracks open the cage, and forbidden music floods in, everything he has been taught about identity, God, and himself begins to unravel.
With every lyric he wasn’t allowed to hear, and every mile he runs from home, Chaz discovers pieces of a self he never knew he could claim. Friends become family. Music becomes prayer. And movement becomes the only escape from a growing storm of shame, confusion, and spiritual fallout he doesn’t yet have language for.
Drugs, heartbreak, adventure, and raw curiosity collide as Chaz tries to live fast enough to stay ahead of his past. But survival has a cost, and reclaiming his voice means confronting everything silence once protected him from.
Lyrical, honest, and unflinchingly human, Life and How to Live It: Near Wild Heaven is a coming-of-age memoir about breaking indoctrination, surviving first love, and learning to choose life after years of enforced silence. Set against the pulse of mid-90s music and youth culture, it is a story for anyone who has ever tried to outrun their past, or finally stopped running.
About Author Chaz Holesworth
Chaz Holesworth is a Philadelphia native and the author of the memoir series Life and How to Live It. Raised in a world shaped by poverty, addiction, and fear-based religion, he writes with unflinching honesty about survival, identity, and the long work of unlearning shame. Music runs through his story as a lifeline, a language, and a way back to himself. Chaz lives outside Philadelphia with his wife and their dog. When he is not writing, he is usually chasing live music, finding new roads to travel, and advocating for the rights of workers and animals
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