Though he studied math and physics in London and Cambridge, New Yorker Alexander Masters has spent the last five years working in hostels for the homeless.

It was in that way that he met Stuart, a homeless, drug-addicted ex-con lying on the sidewalk in Cambridge, England. An unlikely friendship bloomed and in a new book, Stuart: A Life Backwards, Masters takes us on a gripping journey through Stuart's troubled youth, introducing an unforgettable man with a cockney accent.

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