HOMELESSNESS AND ADDICTION

Based on the true events, just published novel TRUTH ACCORDING TO MICHAEL by Stevan V. Nikolic tells us the story about homeless men in New York, their addictions, and the road to recovery.

In 2016, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression (1930). The number of homeless people sleeping each night in the municipal shelters is now 87 percent higher than it was ten years ago. According to official information, in July 2016, there were 60,456 homeless people, including 15,156 homeless families with 23,425 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Besides them, unnumbered thousands of unsheltered homeless people sleep on New York City streets, in the subway system, and in other public spaces.

Among many shelters in New York City that offers refuge, food, shower, clothing, and recovery program to homeless New Yorkers, the Bowery Mission in Lower Manhattan is one of the oldest and best known. Every day, hundreds of people with nowhere else to go, pass through the distinctive red doors of The Bowery Mission Chapel for a hot meal or other services.

Regardless of the circumstances that brought them through the red doors, each is welcomed and served a meal with the care that reflects God’s love to them and respect for their dignity. For many, who join the Bowery Mission recovery program, this is the beginning of the new life and reintegration into society as individuals able to live independently and provide for themselves and their families.

Each of the man entering the Bowery Mission has its own story. Just published novel Truth According to Michael by Stevan V. Nikolic, bring us one such story. Based on the true events, this novel follows thirty-three years in the life of Michael Nicolau. The story takes us on the long path of Michael’s soul-searching and understanding of circumstances that brought him to become a homeless man living in the Bowery Mission. Eager to vindicate himself and his conduct, he speaks about his life, for hours, day after day, to a counselor in the Mission. At the same time comic and tragic, villain and hero, Michael is wrestling with the concepts of truth, reality, hope, faith, love, and honor.

In thirty-five chapters, the author successfully juggles two parallel stories - one of Michael’s life and character; and the other, of the daily life in the Bowery Mission and destinies of men living together and fighting the entrapments of poverty, homelessness, and addiction.

Truth According to Michael is the second book in the Michael Nicolau Series and is available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and other online booksellers in the US and worldwide.