The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah’s Book Club)

'Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story.' PIPER KERMAN, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Orange is the New Black

'Thrilling, funny, heartbreaking and moving. I'll return to this book when I need to be reminded of the power of the human spirit.' DAVID SHEFF, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Boy

'Compelling and timely' BRYAN STEVENSON, author of the New York Times bestseller Just Mercy

The Neighbour From Hell is the astonishing tale of Lara's descent from middle class soccer mum with an enviable lifestyle, beautiful home and family to an opiate addict and identity thief. Convicted of 32 felonies, her children are taken away and she is placed in a local jail.

In this strange and frightening new world, she has to get grips with life behind bars. Lara becomes known in prison as Mama Love. She helps the women around her get to grips with their own troubles, writes letters for them, acts as an advocate, and comforts them in their darkest moments. Soon she climbs the jailhouse social ladder to become 'the shot caller' showing that jailhouse politics and PTA politics are not that different.

Through her incarceration, Lara reveals a world where makeshift furniture is made from tampon boxes and snicker bars are currency, a world of brutal corruption and abuse, and of surprising humanity and tenderness.

Her story gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of the women in jail she spent time with and the very real challenges they, and she, faced trying to make it out of prison, regain custody of their children and start life afresh.