Finding Fish

A New York Times bestseller, Finding Fish is the remarkable story of an African American boy abandoned in an abusive foster home in Cleveland who rises to liberation, manhood, and extraordinary success (in Hollywood).

Born in prison to a single mother after his father was shot and killed, Antwone Fisher soon became a ward of Cleveland’s foster care system. By the time he was five years old, he had been transferred to several different families. Eventually he came to live with the Picketts, an older couple with grown children of their own.

During his stay with the Picketts, which lasted until he was 17 years old, Antwone suffered near–constant verbal and physical abuse at the hands of ̩zz Pickett, and sexual abuse from a neighbour. The damage to his self–esteem was tremendous, yet Antwone managed to resist the gang–like behaviour and drug use that so many of his friends were engaged in. Finally he fled and before long he was living on the streets, homeless. Again rescuing himself, he enlisted in the Navy, where he created a ॡmily’ for himself and with the help of a Navy psychologist worked through his past. After he left the Navy, while working as a security guard at Sony Pictures in Hollywood, he told his story to one of the executives there, who encouraged him to write his life as a screenplay.