Broken Gifts is a horrifying look into the depths of abuse and addiction, yet every chapter also seems to shine hope into the reader's rapidly beating heart. Looking back on the trauma in his life, Tyler Auck finds beauty. This beauty is as miraculous as a flower growing in the crack of a sidewalk. His story is awful. But, by the end of the book you will be cheering him on as he continues his journey in recovery. He shouldn't be alive today. But, he is. And he's kicking addiction's ass every step of the way.
Finding beauty in trauma
"God recently gave me a broken gift in the person of Tyler Auck. He is a man both broken and whole. The traumas of the past that broke him, have paradoxically, made him whole.
His style is honest, gritty, even earthy at times, but direct, expressive, insightful, and extraordinarily self-aware.
The first question the reader should have is, why isn’t Tyler dead yet? There are so many incidents in his life that should have already killed him. But the real reason to read Tyler’s memoir is to learn how to live. Tyler has not learned merely to survive, but to thrive, much like a flower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk. For all of the bad things that Tyler has done in his life, he has done even more good in his capacities as a family man, husband, friend, and addiction counselor.
Tyler Auck, with the help of his Higher Power, family and friends, has transformed himself. He has a saying at the bottom of his emails: Love those that are hardest to love. In the brief months that we have been collaborators and friends, Tyler consistently applies this sentiment to all he meets.
Tyler himself is a ‘broken gift’ that God Almighty has loosed upon the local area. May his memoir be to you a story of a ‘broken gift’ – a story of failure and hopelessness and despair, but ultimately, a story of hope and faith and love."
-Kurt Peterson, Author of Q: The Very First Gospel
“Those who are hardest to love need it the most.”
—SOCRATES