Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019 '[A] painfully
intense, courageous and gripping account of [Fanning's] journey to
the underworld of madness and back. This is a brave and instructive
book.' Irish Times 'Extraordinary. An account of mental illness,
grief, delusions, homelessness, a fractured family relationship ...
and all while trying to recover and create. Superb writing on a
frequently difficult subject.' Sinead Gleeson Arnold Thomas Fanning
had his first experience of depression during adolescence,
following the death of his mother. Some ten years later, an
up-and-coming playwright, he was overcome by mania and delusions.
Thus began a terrible period in which he was often suicidal,
increasingly disconnected from family and friends, sometimes in
trouble with the law, and homeless in London. Drawing on his own
memories, the recollections of people who knew him when he was at
his worst, and medical and police records, Arnold Thomas Fanning
has produced a beautifully written, devastatingly intense account
of madness - and recovery, to the point where he has not had any
serious illness for over a decade and has become an acclaimed
playwright. Fanning conveys the consciousness of a person living
with mania, psychosis and severe depression with a startling
precision and intimacy. Mind on Fire is the gripping, sometimes
harrowing, and ultimately uplifting testament of a person who has
visited hellish regions of the mind. 'Arnold Thomas Fanning offers
the most vivid and unflinching window into the mind of someone who
is in the throes of madness ... It was like nothing I'd read
before' Rick Edwards 'Mind on Fire is a truly powerful, arresting,
haunting account. Arnold Thomas Fanning has reckoned with the
darkest matter of his heart and mind, and I challenge anyone not to
be moved by that.' Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither
and A Line Made by Walking 'In this strange and singular book,
Arnold Thomas Fanning mercilessly excavates the infernal underworld
of his own years of madness. As reminiscent as it occasionally is
of John Healy's The Grass Arena, and even of Orwell's Down and Out
in Paris and London, the book is ultimately not quite like anything
else I've read, and brought me as close to the lived reality of
mental illness as I have ever been. It's a significant achievement:
a painful, inexorable work of autobiography, whose existence is its
own form of redemption.' Mark O'Connell, Baillie Gifford
Prize-shortlisted author of To Be a Machine 'This is an
extraordinary memoir about how it feels to be depressed,
delusional, desperate' The Observer 'Incredibly important' Emilie
Pine, author of Notes to Self 'A ratcheting pace, a tight
first-person immediacy, and utterly staggering to be a passenger
over its entire warped course ... An indelible, ground-shaking
account' Hilary A White, Irish Independent, Memoir of the Year,
Best Reads of 2018 'A spellbinding memoir that should prove both
moving and hopefully cathartic for the reader.' RTE Culture 'Told
in tight and immediate first-person, and imbued with a startling
momentum that ratchets unnervingly, Fanning's publishing debut ...
is a significant achievement and should be a talking point in
publishing this year.' Irish Independent 'Fanning's debut book lays
it on the line in a deeply personal and compelling chronicle of his
descent into depression and his way back out.' RTE Guide
'Wonderful' Joseph O'Connor, Irish Times Books of the Year
'Unsparingly direct, searing and honest ... It is gripping to read
and must have been exhausting to live' Medical Independent 'One of
the most gripping and revealing memoirs I've read in a long time. A
controlled and artful exploration of absolute loss of control, an
unsettling and at times very moving reconstruction of a period of
serious mental illness, Mind on Fire is a beautiful book about a
terrifying thing.' Mark O'Connell, Irish Times Books of the Year
'Gripping' Sinead Gleeson, Irish Times Books of the Year 'Shocking'
Liz Nugent, Irish Times Books of the Year 'Poignant, beautifully
detailed memoir' Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times, Best debuts of 2018
'Brave and illuminating' Sunday Business Post 'This is the type of
account that not only grips you wholesale as the pages flitter
past, it also changes your very perception of psychology' Hilary A
White, Sunday Independent Memoir of the Year
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!