With the Devil's Help

“From the very first page, this book takes you by the throat and doesn’t let go. It’s brutal, fast-paced and, above all, honest. Like every good book before and after it, With the Devil’s Help takes you to a place you’ve never been and never known you’ve wanted to go, for a little while, at least.” —Daniel Wallace, New York Times best-selling author of Big Fish and This Isn’t Going to End Well
“A true story of the Deep South that grabs your imagination with both hands and never lets you go. Prepare to stay up all night after you read the first page.” —Homer Hickam, New York Times best-selling author of Rocket Boys/October Sky
“With the Devil’s Help is a survival story in the mode of Harry Crews’ brilliant memoir A Childhood. Crews concluded that for a ‘grit,’ a redneck like him, survival was triumph enough. Wooten concurs.” —Don Noble, The Tuscaloosa News

“I encourage you to read it. It could be a movie.” —Louie Saenz, The Book Club, NPR

“Stand-up comic and writer Wooten turns in an earnest, sometimes sorrowful account of his upbringing in the poorest part of northeast Alabama…A Drive-By Truckers album of a book, sometimes appalling, always heartfelt and vividly observed.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Readers who are interested in complex family histories like Tara Westover’s Educated will enjoy this book.” —Library Journal

“This story takes you into the heart of Sand Mountain…has readers and true-crime lovers practically giving themselves paper cuts from turning the pages so fast.” —Charles Montgomery and Anna Mahan, WAFF News Huntsville, AL

“I devoured this book. It is engrossing, relatable, intriguing, heartbreaking and so well written. I could visualize it and that is not something that every writer can convey. The author took a brutal childhood and somehow turned it into a story filled with heart. The way he intertwined the two storylines was masterful.” —William Dameron, author of The Lie: A Memoir of Two Marriages, Catfishing and Coming Out
“A powerful story told by an excellent writer that paints a true picture of the Deep South. Neal Wooten weaves a tale that will make you cry and then laugh, often in the same paragraph. This book will draw you in and hold on to you.” —Jerry Ellis: author of Walking the Trail: One Man’s Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears

Neal Wooten grew up on a pig farm on Sand Mountain in the northeast corner of Alabama. The first person in the history of his family to graduate from high school, Neal went on to graduate from Auburn University with a B.S. in applied mathematics. He became a math teacher and director of a math school in Milwaukee, winning numerous math awards. He is now the Managing Editor for Mirror Publishing, a contributor to the Huffington Post, columnist for The Mountain Valley News, curator of the Fort Payne Depot Museum, creator of the popular Facebook comic strip “Brad’s Pit,” and standup comedian.

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