THE DISILLUSIONED is a ruthlessly honest memoir of a young man who writes both searingly and disarmingly about the highs and lows, the perils and promise of our times. THE DISILLUSIONED documents the struggle all too common for recent generations: yearning to find a sense of worth and a purpose to their lives against the backdrop of abuses rife in modern society and the duplicity of political systems which favour the rich and powerful despite the hollow rhetoric that promises something else. THE DISILLUSIONED encompasses three decades, beginning with the impressionable child indoctrinated with the propaganda of Thatcher's Britain and suffering sexual abuse, a lack of role models and any sense of belonging. It is a gripping story of obsessive ambition, discrimination, sex, scams, suicidal impulses, alcoholism, the search for love, loss and the quest for redemption in New Zealand. It is the author's story, but also the story of a disillusioned silent majority; the story of young people bogged down with debt and disillusionment; the story, too, of the increasing dangers facing our children in a materialistic world where family bonds and values are sacrificed for high incomes and status. "THE DISILLUSIONED is a surprisingly compulsive read about what I call the Misfit Generation - the one beguiled at first by the challenge of rational economics and then bewildered by its effects. David Scott's odyssey is to find self-worth, to discover basic human values among the detritus of modern life. At the end you can't be sure he's made it. But his story matters and he tells it with the pace and directness of a pro." - Gordon McLauchlan, writer and book critic.