Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful

A memoir of family, addiction, and grief from the sister of Harris Wittels, the Parks and Recreation writer whose death shocked the comedy world...

In 2015, Stephanie Wittels Wachs’s life was changed forever by one phone call. Her little brother Harris, a star in the comedy world and known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. TMZ had leaked the story of his death before Stephanie could even share the news with her mother, and thousands of people flocked to the internet to call her brother an idiot and to declare that he deserved it. Suddenly, Stephanie found herself at the cruel and bewildering nexus of Facebook, celebrity, and grief.

An extraordinarily thoughtful and moving meditation on grief, Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful combines a heartbreaking journey of loss with a compelling portrait of a comedic genius and a profound exploration of the love between siblings. In beautiful, sentimental, yet starkly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs has penned A Year of Magical Thinking for a new generation of readers.