Newspaper Diapers

After spending several years in New York and California working in group homes for abused and emotionally disturbed children, author M. T. Johnson spent two and a half years living and traveling in Southeast Asia, where he wrote this, his first book, Newspaper Diapers. Newspaper Diapers is a work of fiction that tackles child abuse and group homes, a fascinating collection of short pieces expertly woven together by a few brilliant interconnected threads. The book is a disturbing and graphic look at what we do to ourselves and each other, a blurring of the line between abuser and victim, and a glimpse into certain minds and realities we'd rather not see. The author's brutally honest writing style deals with sex and abuse with a candor and bluntness in the tradition of Henry Rollins and Hubert Selby Jr.

M. T. Johnson said of the book, “Statistics about child abuse seem to bring about little, if any, change; it's the individual stories that inspire action, that get under our skin and keep us up at night. Newspaper Diapers is dedicated to the amazing kids I worked with, some of whom have already passed away at the hands of murder or suicide. This is an earnest attempt at moving forward with my own life, and an attempt at portraying certain realities, no matter how harsh or ugly they might be--for it's only by acknowledging reality that we can move forward.”