Unraveled: A Mother and Son Story of Addiction and Redemption

Laura Cook Boldt · Tom H. Boldt

Nov 2020 · Greenleaf Book Group

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With intense courage and candor, mother and son coauthors, Laura and Tom Boldt, share the raw accounting of Tom’s journey into alcohol and drug addiction and how that trauma reverberated throughout their circle of family, friends, and extended family. The book also charts Laura, who has a backstory. She is more than a mother standing by watching the life of her promising young son come undone. She has struggled with alcohol addiction firsthand but remains emotionally and physically sober and present for her son during his collision course with disaster. The Boldt family’s love and compassion is palpable as they work their way through deep fear, sleepless nights, and crushing setbacks. 

​Thisis a riveting portrayal of the agonies of addiction and how one family faced their issues and found a stronger, more sustainable path forward. Many readers will undoubtedly see themselves in these stories and will come away with an abiding sense of hope—not just for Tommy and Laura, but for themselves, too. 

The writing in Unraveled is brilliant and fresh, and the two voices working together and against each other makes Unraveled even more memorable. Tommy's gift for zingy one-liners energizes the story and contrasts cleverly with Laura's witty yet measured and concerned maternal tone. 

Unraveled is a tale of chaos and near-death experiences that shares personal and private moments and the intense challenges and grueling work it takes to get sober and remain sober. It’s a unique story of a mother and son’s journey that ends with on-your-knees epiphanies that leave both parent and child asking for help. This tandem narrative is a compelling testimony of bravery and honesty that, with edgy and surprising humor, charts a family’s slow climb out of the abyss of pain into the full power of faith, redemption, and healing.

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Laura Cook Boldt was born and reared in St. Louis, Missouri, and is the daughter of the late Mary Margaret Blair and Howard Winston Cook, both from Jefferson City, Missouri. Married to Tom for thirty-plus years, mother of four grown boys, and sister to a mix of five siblings all currently living in the US, she graduated from Colorado College with a BA in English and continued on to Parsons School of Design in NYC. Laura has also completed courses at Pratt Institute and Washington University. Currently a retired designer, Laura continues to travel, spending most of her time in the mountains of Colorado and with her family. Unraveled, a memoir, is her first book, and she has begun writing another nonfiction book, Bastard by Dawn.

Thomas Henry Boldt was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the son of Laura and Tom Boldt and the eldest of his three brothers. He has traveled extensively across many continents for racing, surfing, and exploring. Tom remains close with his brothers and extended family. His current interests include travel, hiking, and snowboarding wherever he can, and he loves anything involving recreation on the water. He is currently living in Orange County, California, and owns and operates a small company nearby. Unraveled is Tom’s first book.