A tale of loss, complicated friendship and the unyielding presence of the past, ‘A Quarter Inch from My Heart’ is a searing and powerful memoir from author and journalist, Kevin Scott Hall.

Brooklyn, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/15/2014 --Telling the riveting true story of what happened when Kevin Scott Hall took in a refugee of Hurricane Katrina, Hall’s second book, ‘A Quarter Inch from My Heart’ is a story of love found in the unlikeliest of places.

Determined to help Maurice “get back on his feet”, Hall was still thrown for a loop by what transpired. Over two-and-a-half years, the two men lived as roommates and friends, forcing Hall to examine his own feelings about race, class and love. When Maurice was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer and AIDS, Hall stayed with him until the bittersweet end, looking after his friend and watching his spiritual and emotional growth.

It was a defining moment that led to Hall journeying through his own past and confronting the demons that lurked there, waiting in the darkness.

“When Maurice died, I realized what I’d lost and I began to revisit many experiences that I hadn’t thought of in years,” says the author. “I was the victim of a random street stabbing in 1994, and the event reverberated through my life. In writing the memoir, I detailed my struggles as an artist, family tensions and other events from my past in an attempt to understand how I had come to this moment – letting a mysterious stranger into my life and growing closer to him than I’d ever been to anyone.”

Examining why people make the choices that they make, and overcome the wounds in their lives, ‘A Quarter Inch from My Heart’ is above all, a question of what a human being will do for another human being, and how much a person will risk in the act of saving a life – or their own.

Early buzz about ‘A Quarter Inch from My Heart’ has been overwhelmingly positive.

“A Quarter Inch From My Heart is a harrowing account of love and loss. Kevin Scott Hall writes about being young in New York City and reckoning with how we all must grow up by taking care of each other and ourselves. His memoir is not only about one life or even the defining, complicated friendship at its center, but about the universal project of being decent, thoughtful citizens of the world. It is at once deeply introspective and outward reaching.” – Rachel DeWoskin, author of Foreign Babes in Beijing, Big Girl Small, and Repeat After Me

“Kevin Scott Hall’s book is more than a book; it is an intimate letter of a young artist struggling with the peradventure of chance meetings and a relationship that would lead him to grow as an individual psychologically and spiritually. Like all such letters the reader is drawn into the pathos of the naked emotion of life and love: A growth from eros to philios and further to the undeniable agape. If you have ever cared for a friend and come to see the holy in the other then this is a work that is a must read.” -- Fr Jeffrey L. Hamblin, MD, Bay Ridge Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, NY

“In A Quarter Inch from My Heart Kevin Scott Hall explores his amazing love for a dazzling drifter, Maurice, the man who became his “prodigal brother”--and who leaves an indelible mark on Hall's heart and the hearts of all who read this luminous, unforgettable memoir about agape, recovery, and faith,” -- Jocelyn Lieu, author of What Wasn’t There and Potential Weapons

“Kevin Scott Hall’s memoir of an offbeat life and an inexplicable love offers consistently readable ups, downs, and—especially—curves that, in the end, offer life lessons in generosity, persistence and redemption.” -- Robert Windeler, noted critic, and biographer (Shirley Temple, Julie Andrews: A Life on Stage and Screen, and Sweetheart: The Story of Mary Pickford, among others)

For more information, visit: http://www.kevinscotthall.com.

For Press Enquiries, please contact: Kevin Scott Hall / (646) 708-1647 / kevscohall@verizon.net

About Kevin Scott Hall
Hall, an adjunct lecturer at City College and Borough of Manhattan Community College, published his novel, Off the Charts!, a dark satire of the music business, in 2010. Prior to that, he worked for many years as a singer/songwriter in New York clubs, and released three recordings, including the acclaimed New Light Dawning. Hall writes entertainment features and has entertained dozens of celebrities for Edge Media Network, and he writes music reviews for http://www.bistroawards.com.

Recently, Hall was named a 2014 Distinguished Artist by the historic Beaux Arts Society of New York.