Popular motivational speaker and entertainer David Roche’s latest essay collection explores the beauty found in unusual places with elegant humour and compassion.

David Roche was born with vascular malformation of the face, which he sees as an “incredible gift” that has forced him to look inside for beauty and self-worth. It has also helped him to see the beauty in others, despite their flaws, allowing him to live in a world of beautiful people. With a refreshingly good-natured outlook, Roche muses on disability, activism, religion and family.

Roche tells the personal story of his journey towards finding happiness, which culminated in his receiving the Order of Canada. Germinating in his “seriously Catholic” childhood and teenage years spent studying in a seminary to be a priest, Roche grew up adhering to doctrine, which paved the way for a “fairly seamless transition” into twelve years of devotion to the Democratic Workers Party.

Roche’s life came to a turning point when he realized that, although he had been devoted to changing the world, he didn’t know his own soul. Eventually freed by the dissolution of the Democratic Workers Party, Roche turned towards a more meaningful way of life, embracing acceptance and love.

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“This new book by David Roche, like all his work, is brilliant, illuminated, painful, wise, encouraging and funny. The stories in Standing at the Back Door of Happiness, about his facial deformity side by side with his rich inner beauty and joy in living, filled my heart and soul with a deep compassion for myself, and for you, whoever you are.”

Anne Lamott, international bestselling author