When Nana-Ama Danquah, a twenty-two-year-old single mother, began to suffer from a variety of depressive symptoms after giving birth to her daughter, she thought she was going crazy. Determined to portray strength in a world that often undervalues Black women’s lives, she shrouded her debilitating despair in silence and denial. But when she befriends other Black women who suffer with depression, she finds the support she needs to confront the traumatic childhood events that lie beneath her grief. Twenty-five years after its initial publication, as best-selling author Andrew Solomon writes in an illuminating foreword, Willow Weep for Me “remains a brave book . . . but at the time of its writing it was humblingly audacious.” Also including an afterword from the author, this groundbreaking classic is a powerful meditation on courage and a litany for survival. “An important and moving memoir. [Danquah] describes beautifully her experiences with depression.” —Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind

It is vitally important for medical students and junior doctors to grasp an understanding of 'real-life medicine'. This innovative book of cases shows how a particular presentation may progress, and the different complications that may arise and emerge over time, which may be missed by the 'snapshot in time' approach taken by many problem-based volumes. The content reflects the average length of stay for a patient in hospital, in which their situation can change in a multitude of ways, and the management of chronic conditions may also need to be adapted as complications arise. Demonstrates the real bedside experiences that medical students can expect, in whichever simple or complex way that they may present Cases selected from a range of sub-specialties for comprehensive coverage across the curriculum Illustrates the complicated, progressive problems that will be seen while practicing as a doctor with detailed diagrams and diagnostic imagery to aid understanding Shows, with timepoints, how differential diagnoses may change as more information becomes available and new symptoms arise Describes a typical initial hospital stay, and subsequent presentations to the general practitioner and hospital readmission The Authors Andrew Solomon, BM BCH MA(Hons) DM FRCP, is a Consultant Physician, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Stevenage, UK. Julia Anstey, BSc (Hons) MBBS, is a Foundation Doctor, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Taunton, UK. Liora Wittner, MBBS BSc, is a Resident in Internal Medicine, Shamir Medical Centre, Be'er Ya'akov, Israel. With contributions from Priti Dutta, MBBS BSc FRCR, Consultant Radiologist, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.

Solomon's startling proposition in "Far from the Tree" is that being exceptional is at the core of the human condition--that difference is what unites us. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, and Solomon documents triumphs of love over prejudice in every chapter.
All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent should parents accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on ten years of research and interviews with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges.
Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original and compassionate thinker, "Far from the Tree" explores how people who love each other must struggle to accept each other--a theme in every family's life.

It is vitally important for medical students and junior doctors to grasp an understanding of 'real-life medicine'. This innovative book of cases shows how a particular presentation may progress, and the different complications that may arise and emerge over time, which may be missed by the 'snapshot in time' approach taken by many problem-based volumes. The content reflects the average length of stay for a patient in hospital, in which their situation can change in a multitude of ways, and the management of chronic conditions may also need to be adapted as complications arise. Demonstrates the real bedside experiences that medical students can expect, in whichever simple or complex way that they may present Cases selected from a range of sub-specialties for comprehensive coverage across the curriculum Illustrates the complicated, progressive problems that will be seen while practicing as a doctor with detailed diagrams and diagnostic imagery to aid understanding Shows, with timepoints, how differential diagnoses may change as more information becomes available and new symptoms arise Describes a typical initial hospital stay, and subsequent presentations to the general practitioner and hospital readmission The Authors Andrew Solomon, BM BCH MA(Hons) DM FRCP, is a Consultant Physician, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Stevenage, UK. Julia Anstey, BSc (Hons) MBBS, is a Foundation Doctor, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Taunton, UK. Liora Wittner, MBBS BSc, is a Resident in Internal Medicine, Shamir Medical Centre, Be'er Ya'akov, Israel. With contributions from Priti Dutta, MBBS BSc FRCR, Consultant Radiologist, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.

From the National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression comes a monumental new work, a decade in the writing, about family. In Far from the Tree, Andrew Solomon tells the stories of parents who not only learn to deal with their exceptional children but also find profound meaning in doing so. Solomons startling proposition is that diversity is what unites us all. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, as are the triumphs of love Solomon documents in every chapter. All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent parents should accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on forty thousand pages of interview transcripts with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges. Whether considering prenatal screening for genetic disorders, cochlear implants for the deaf, or gender reassignment surgery for transgender people, Solomon narrates a universal struggle toward compassion. Many families grow closer through caring for a challenging child; most discover supportive communities of others similarly affected; some are inspired to become advocates and activists, celebrating the very conditions they once feared. Woven into their courageous and affirming stories is Solomons journey to accepting his own identity, which culminated in his midlife decision, influenced by this research, to become a parent. Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original thinker, Far from the Tree explores themes of generosity, acceptance, and tolerance--all rooted in the insight that love can

In 1991 Andrew Solomon faced down tanks in Moscow with a band of Russian artists protesting the August coup. We find him on the quest for a rare bird in Zambia in 1998, and in Greenland in 2001 researching widespread depression among the Inuit. In 2002 he was in Afghanistan for the fall of the Taliban. He was brought in for questioning in Qaddafi's Libya in 2006. In 2014 he travelled to Myanmar to meet ex-political prisoners as the country fitfully pushed towards freedom. Far and Away tells these and many other stories. With his signature compassion, Solomon demonstrates both how history is altered by individuals, and how personal identities shift when governments change. A journalist and essayist of remarkable perception and prescience, Solomon chronicles a life's travels to the nexus of hope, courage, and the uncertainty of lived experience and tracks seismic shifts - cultural, political and spiritual. He takes us on a magnificent journey into the heart of extraordinarily diverse experiences via intimate, deeply moving stories that reveal and revel in our common humanity.

WITH A NEW EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR Like Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, The Noonday Demon digs deep into personal history, as Andrew Solomon narrates, brilliantly and terrifyingly, his own agonising experience of depression. Solomon also portrays the pain of others, in different cultures and societies whose lives have been shattered by depression and uncovers the historical, social, biological, chemical and medical implications of this crippling disease. He takes us through the halls of mental hospitals where some of his subjects have been imprisoned for decades; into the research labs; to the burdened and afflicted poor, rural and urban. He talks to faith healers and voyages around the world in a quest for folk wisdom. He analyses the medications of today as well as reviewing the politics of diagnosis and treatment and, perhaps most significantly, he looks at the vital role of will and love in the process of recovery. **ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**

**WINNER OF THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2014** A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Sometimes your child - the most familiar person of all - is radically different from you. The saying goes that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. But what happens when it does? Drawing on interviews with over three hundred families, covering subjects including deafness, dwarfs, Down's Syndrome, Autism, Schizophrenia, disability, prodigies, children born of rape, children convicted of crime and transgender people, Andrew Solomon documents ordinary people making courageous choices. Difference is potentially isolating, but Far from the Tree celebrates repeated triumphs of human love and compassion to show that the shared experience of difference is what unites us. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for General Non-fiction and eleven other national awards. Winner of the Green Carnation Prize.