Tristimania

Tristimania

A Diary of Manic Depression

Summary

A stark, lyrical and personal account of the psyche in crisis from the bestselling author of Wild and Kith

"I want to describe it for those who have never experienced it but who perhaps know someone with it. If this book can befriend just one person in that terrifying loneliness, it will be worth writing."

Tristimania tells the story of a devastating year-long episode of manic depression, culminating in a long solo pilgrimage across Spain. Recording the experience of mania as has rarely been done before, Jay Griffiths shows how the condition is at once terrifying and also profoundly creative, both tricking and treating the psyche.

An intimate and raw journey of mental health and recovery, Tristimania illuminates something of the universal human spirit.

'Profoundly poetic. A glimpse of madness from inside the eye of the storm' Observer

Reviews

  • Publisher's description. A stark and lyrical memoir of the steep descent into madness and the slow, agonizing recovery that follows. In 2013, Jay Griffiths suffered a devastating year-long episode of hypomania and extreme depression. Tristimania is the extraordinary, brave and painfully honest account of that year.
    Penguin

About the author

Jay Griffiths

Jay Griffiths is the author of Tristimania: A Diary of Manic Depression, Wild: An Elemental Journey; Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time; A Love Letter from a Stray Moon and Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape. She won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award for the best new non-fiction writer in the USA, and the Orion Book Award. She has also been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and a World Book Day award.
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