A Million Little Pieces is a semi-fictional memoir

Memoir

A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

 by James Frey

James Frey

James Christopher Frey is an American writer. His books A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard , as well as Bright Shiny Morning , were bestsellers...

. It tells the story of a 23-year-old alcoholic and drug abuser and how he copes with rehabilitation in a Twelve steps

Twelve-step program

A Twelve-Step Program is a set of guiding principles outlining a course of action for recovery from addiction, compulsion, or other behavioral problems...

-oriented treatment center. While initially promoted as a memoir, it was later discovered that many of the events described in the book never happened.
A badly tattered James awakens on an airplane to Chicago, with no recollection of his injuries or of how he ended up on the plane.