The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

WITH A NEW EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR The most affecting, intelligent, important and constructive book on depression there has ever been - a key text by a New Yorker writer who has not only experienced the depths of depression but has researched every aspect of it.

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.

Andrew Solomon

Reviews

“ The best book ever on depression. Andrew Solomon explains everything with a sharp, scientific clarity. ”

William Leith, Evening Standard

“ The history, treatment and even politics of depression are thoroughly covered… Solomon’s brutal honesty makes this the best account of depression I have ever read. ”

Chris Nancollas, Tablet

“ A mesmerising journey... magnificent ”

Observer

“ Extraordinary and redeeming... A work of great charm and individuality but also of impressive scholarship ”

Evening Standard

“ A lodestone work ”

Guardian

“ Few books are as powerful, as controversial or, at times, as wryly humorous... Poised to become a classic of our time: a key text for a generation that has depression at its core ”

Mail on Sunday

“ Fascinating and warm-hearted... Compelling, wide-ranging, open-minded, useful, a testimony of the mind's power to overcome the most formidable obstacles and that offers hope to us all ”

The Times

“ A groundbreaking book... Eloquently impassioned, exhaustive ”

Daily Telegraph

Paperback

9781784702670

February 1, 2016

Vintage

688 pages

RRP $27.99
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EBook

9781446414002

March 31, 2012

Vintage Digital

688 pages
Online retailers