Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
The Problem Drinker - Kyle Kouri

The Problem Drinker

By: Kyle Kouri

Paperback | 2 June 2026

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $31.89

$31.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $7.94 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

His girlfriend is horror famous, his own writing and acting is floundering, and he is drinking to make sense of it all.

Kyle Kouri's debut non-fiction collection is full of ‘whiskey courage’ staring at the abyss of family, writing rejection, relationships, and his own drinking. From hijinks at AWP to hustling in the movie business, Kouri bridges the gap in drama between indie and horror.

At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, The Problem Drinker is the story of an artist living with another artist, yearning to move the needle in his career, amidst a sea of personal tragedies and comedies. If F. Scott Fitzgerald had one foot in the 2020s horror scene, that’s the spirit of Kouri’s caustic and big-hearted, lush and refreshingly candid debut.

Industry Reviews

"A tongue-in-cheek collection of essays about failing as a writer, feeling like a loser, and the shenanigans that unfold when you're just trying your best." -Debutiful

"The Problem Drinker is brilliant, somehow both minimalist and gorgeously sweeping. Kyle Kouri is casually, effortlessly honest in a way that is so utterly propulsive, it makes the raw elegance of The Problem Drinker difficult to express without reading it for yourself. A potent, lyrical narrative." —Chuck Tingle, LOCUS Award-winning author of Bury Your Gays

“Best book I've ever read. Author's super hot." —CJ Leede, USA Today Best-Selling author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture

“Reading The Problem Drinker is like sitting in group therapy with all of your inner demons. At first, they just get fucking hammered and cry about all their own shit. Then, they fight about it. Then, they turn on you about it. And that’s when you pour yourself another and hope to hell you make it out alive." —D.T. Robbins, author of Leasing and founder of Rejection Letters

"Exquisitely raw, self-aware, and fresh out of fucks to give, The Problem Drinker threads the world’s finest needle by giving voice to a dying art: late nights, stiff drinks, and the fickle agony of love and family. Kouri’s voice lives somewhere between Hunter S. Thompson and David Sedaris. It’s as messy as it is intellectual, with a wholly unique, heart-wrenching irreverence. From one so-called problem drinker to another, I am so glad this book exists." —Liz Kerin, author of Night’s Edge

"Kyle Kouri’s The Problem Drinker is a mystical tour-de-force through the terror of personal and poetic histories. Populated with stiff drinks, film, the art of writing, love, tragedy, fear, and glee, Kouri shares all in this book, letting us into the failures and celebrations of his existence in equal parts. Part memoir, part lyric essay, part epic poem, The Problem Drinker eviscerates through the nonsense of life and presents us with a pure and gleaming I, glinting in the sun of its own discovery." —Dorothea Lasky, author of The Shining

A Moveable Feast for modern day. Like Hemingway, Kouri writes about debauchery, art, the pain and pleasure of existence both comically and poignantly. Pour yourself your drink of choice and read this bold and surprisingly heartfelt meditation of a man examining his life and relationship to drinking." —Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl

"Searing, sobering, powered by an immense heartbeat all its own, The Problem Drinker effortlessly brings to life a singular literary voice, as humorous as it is grave. With candid and profoundly moving prose, Kouri journeys through grief, duty, art, apocalypse, and the absurdity of human life to create nothing short of a manifesto for the goriness and glory of being alive. I cried, and laughed, and I could not put this book down." —Mina Seçkin, author of The Four Humors

"A masterclass in booze-soaked realness, The Problem Drinker is honest and obfuscating all at once. The liquored-up pages of this brutal, funny, and tender memoir will leave you breathless, despondent, and hopeful. Kouri's frank depiction of grief, addiction, and the ways we cope with the chaos of the everyday and our own desires, dreams and shortcomings is beautifully rendered and refreshingly self-aware." —Sarah-Jane Collins, author of Radiant Heat

More in Biographies

Queens and Kings : An Unusually Personal History - Lucy Worsley

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF
Home Again : My life and times in a band called Shihad - Jon Toogood
Peter Daicos : My family's journey - Peter Daicos

SIGNED COPY

RRP $50.00

$29.99

40%
OFF
A Suitable Man : The Eccentric Empire of Fletcher Jones - Jock Serong
Great and Unfortunate Things - Jason Arday

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
What Happened Yesterday - Matt Sturniolo

RRP $35.19

$31.99

Brand Beckham : The Fame. The Feuds. The Fallout. - Alison Boshoff

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Reckoning : A Memoir - Magda Szubanski

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Eleven : We Burn Them in the Sun - Christian Ryan

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF
Diary of an English Garden - Paul Bangay

SIGNED COPY

RRP $90.00

$75.00

17%
OFF
John Farnham : A Little Golden Book Biography - Alisha Monnin
An Unexpected Life : A Memoir - Gloria Steinem

RRP $45.00

$35.75

21%
OFF
You Are Not Alone : Michael, Through a Brother's Eyes - Jermaine Jackson
Juicy : How to Live a Life in the Wreckage of Expectations - Sheree Joseph
The Smallest Restaurant in Paris - Rachel Khoo

RRP $36.99

$28.75

22%
OFF
Lionel Messi : 5-Minute Genius Stories - Heather Alexander

RRP $24.99

$15.75

37%
OFF
A Grateful Son : An Autobiography - Josh Frydenberg

SIGNED COPY

RRP $45.00

$29.99

33%
OFF
Living with Freddie - Anna Heyward

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF