Pops: Learning to Be a Son and a Father

A “deeply personal, heartwarming” exploration of fatherhood, addiction, and resiliency from the award–winning news anchor of NBC’s Today show (Shondaland).

Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, Craig Melvin had a fraught relationship with his father. A hard-drinking man who worked the graveyard shift at a postal facility, Lawrence Melvin was a distant parent. Craig found ways of connecting with his father through sports and tinkering with his beloved 1973 Pontiac LeMans. But as Lawrence’s drinking spiraled out of control, their bond was stretched to the breaking point.

Fortunately, Craig had a loving, fiercely protective mother who held the family together. He also had a series of surrogate father figures in his life—uncles, teachers, workplace mentors—who by their examples helped him figure out the kind of person and father he wanted to be. Pops is the story of all these men, and of the inspiring fathers Craig has met reporting his “Dads Got This Series” on the Today show.

For Craig, this book is an opportunity to better understand his father; to interrogate his family’s legacy of addiction and despair as well as transformation and redemption; and to explore the challenges facing all dads—including Craig himself, a father of two young children.

© 2023 William Morrow (Rafbók): 9780063072015

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Rafbók: 21 november 2023