Almost Grown: A New York Memoir is a coming-of-age story exploring native New Yorker Jesse Malin’s boundless creativity and triumph over daunting challenges, both physical and emotional. It’s a raw, honest, and often funny account of how a hyperactive kid from Queens made his dreams come true—and the hustlers, sweethearts, misfits, and lifelong friends he met along the way.

With Malin as its streetwise narrator, the book has more in common with The Basketball Diaries or Just Kids than with a standard rock memoir. Although music is at the core of Malin’s soul, Almost Grown welcomes the reader into the tumultuous inner world of a boy from a broken home determined to create a life he could love.

In 2023, Malin was struck with a rare spinal stroke that paralyzed him from the waist down. The longtime runner and vegetarian went public with this news—and his fierce resolve to walk again—in an interview with Rolling Stone. The story was picked up by the New York Times, People, CNN, Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and other outlets worldwide. The massive outpouring of love and support culminated in the release of Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin—with twenty-eight celebrated artists covering his songs to raise money for his recovery. On December 1 and 2, 2024, Malin gave his first public performances since his stroke, taking the stage for two sold-out concerts at New York’s Beacon Theatre.

Available from Penguin Random House

Jesse Malin is a “gritty troubadour of the streets” (Rolling Stone) who tours internationally and collaborates with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead, and Lucinda Williams. Malin went from playing CBGB at age thirteen to Madison Square Garden in his early twenties; from crashing the stage with his friends during Fear’s infamous Saturday Night Live performance to playing his own songs on The Tonight Show and CBS Saturday Morning. His body of work has garnered praise from Rolling Stone, Uncut, Paste, American Songwriter, Spin, the Times (UK), Classic Rock Magazine, No Depression, Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, and many more. His autobiographical play, Jesse Malin’s Silver Manhattan, debuted at the Gramercy Theatre in 2025.

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist based in Toronto with a focus on tourism, lifestyle, entertainment and community issues. He has written several travel articles and has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He’s willing to take on any assignments of interest, attend parties with free booze, listen to rants, and travel the world in search of the great unknown. He’s eager to discover the new, remember the past, and look into the future.