Blue Days, Black Nights A Memoir By Ron Nyswaner Published by Alyson Books Price:                £8.99

We’re jumping again – from the ancient to the latest offering from this Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Philadelphia.  Despite the success of his latest film, screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia, Soldier's Girl) has been contemplating self-destruction. "I don't want a mediocre, empty life", he tells his psychiatrist-acupuncturist-herbalist after half-heartedly attempting to hang himself with a belt. Then, on a trip from his home in upstate Los Angeles, Ron meets and falls for world-weary Johann, a Latin-quoting, leather-clad hustler from Germany. In the next year Johann will teach him many things: how to make a crack pipe out of a soda can, how to lose oneself utterly in passion, how to come down from a crystal binge and how to keep living when everything you've been living for is gone. Loving Johann might kill Ron, but it will never be boring.  Often hilarious, more often deeply disturbing – Ron Nyswaner’s first book is a frank insight into a life less ordinary.  This book is a tour de force of self destruction, passion and the involuntary nature of love – compelling.