Kevin Hart’s funny, heartfelt new memoir, I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons, written with Neil Strauss, chronicles Hart’s path from a Dickensian childhood to overwhelming success as a comedian, actor, and social media phenomenon (with a following of more than 100 million).

Hart’s story begins in North Philadelphia, where he was born an accident, unwanted by his parents. His father was a drug addict. His brother was a crack dealer and petty thief. And his mother was severe and strict, beating him with belts, frying pans, and his own toys.

However, like Ernest Hemingway, J.K. Rowling, and Chocolate Droppa before him, Hart was able to defy the odds and turn it around. In his literary debut, which he has narrated for Audible, he takes the reader on a journey through what his life was, and how he overcame challenges to become the man he is today.

Listen to two hilarious clips from Hart’s saga.