Jesse Malin, a singer-songwriter whose songs have been covered by Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Green Day, Elvis Costello and others, has released his first book, Almost Grown: A New York Memoir. Malin, who began as a hardcore punk-rocker in the lower Manhattan clubs before embarking on a solo with nine albums in release, began writing the book before suffering a rare spinal stroke in 2023 that left him paralyzed from the waist down. The book, published on April 7, 2026, is available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.

“Rather than retreat from the spotlight, he defied the odds and learned to perform again on stage, spreading the gospel of rock and roll, and PMA (Positive Mental Attitude),” says a press release announcing the book. His tale is one of resilience and determination, recounting how Malin worked hard to be able to perform again. In 2026, Malin made his Off-Broadway debut in the acclaimed stage show Silver Manhattan, which has continually sold out and received rave reviews from critics. The show will run through April 26 at the Bowery Palace in New York City.

Related: Lucinda Williams, who has also kept performing after a stroke, is a fan and colleague of Malin’s

Says the press announcement: “Almost Grown: A New York Memoir is a raw, honest, and often funny account of how a kid from a broken home in Queens made his dreams come true, and the hustlers and dreamers he met along the way. Almost Grown is out now on Akashic Books.”

“I started writing this book years ago, at the kitchen table in my walk-up apartment on the Lower East Side in New York City,” says Malin, who was inspired by one of his favorite books, the late Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries.

Watch Malin perform “All the Way From Moscow” in 2010

“Set in the 1980s and ’90s,” the press release continues, “Malin found his community in the hardcore music scene with his pioneering band, Heart Attack, followed by D Generation. ‘I’d come home late at night from a gig and still have energy to burn. So, I’d sit scrawling stories and notes onto sheets of paper, and in composition books, into the early morning hours.’

“Throughout this nightmare [of the stroke], I’ve kept writing. I’ve always loved telling stories in my songs, usually about other people. But Almost Grown is a story I want to tell you about myself, the loved ones I’ve lost, and the beautiful characters I met along the way as I was growing up and coming into my own.”

Listen: Bruce Springsteen covered Malin’s “She Don’t Love Me Now”