AustLit

A memoir about anxiety, our minds, and optimism in spite of it all

Where do mental illness stories begin?

'Anna’s always had too many feelings. Or not enough feelings – she’s never been quite sure. Debilitating panic. Extraordinary melancholy. Paranoia. Ambivalence. Fear. Despair. 

'From anxious child to terrified parent, mental illness has been a constant. A harsh critic in the big moments –  teenage pregnancy, divorce, a dream career, falling in love – and a companion in the small ones – getting to the supermarket, feeding all her cats, remembering which child is which.

'But between therapists’ rooms and emergency departments, there’s been a feeling even harder to explain … optimism.

'In this sharp-eyed and illuminating memoir, award-winning writer Anna Spargo-Ryan pieces together the relationships between time, mental illness, and our brain as the keeper of our stories. Against the backdrop of her own experience, she interrogates reality, how it can be fractured, and why it’s so hard to put it back together. 

'Powerfully honest, tender and often funny, A Kind of Magic blends meticulous research with vivid snapshots of the stuff that breaks us, and the magic of finding ourselves again.'  (Publication summary)

'My mother had morphed into versions of all kinds of boyfriends before Jason. She'd been a cowboy boot wearer and a biker chick and a Liberal voter. She'd been a person who went to raves in the bush and a person who watched horror movies and a person who had to sleep with the fan on. They'd come and go, and she'd snap back to herself. But no one had shattered her the way Jason did.

'When her mother falls for some guy that she met at the supermarket, sixteen-year-old Skye immediately senses danger. Jason is charming but secretive, prone to fits of temper. He comes and goes at all hours. He has strange friends. Soon he has convinced her mother quit her job and come to work with him... whatever he does.

'When Jason persuades Linda that she and her kids should move into his place in Port Flinders - a struggling town in South Australia's Gulf region - Skye and her brother Ben do their best to settle into a new routine. But as Jason's behaviour becomes more unpredictable, and their mother increasingly absent, Skye finds herself forced to make decisions that will change all of their lives for good.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'And then I was pregnant, and we realised we had no space for a baby.

'We looked at all kinds of houses: big, new ones with columns and render; little cottages with beaten weatherboard; a yellow brick monstrosity with a paved yard where there should have been grass. But we were drawn to the rolling water. And our heart stayed behind when we left.

'Heather and Dave have found the perfect place to raise their first child. The house has character, but it's the garden that really makes it: red-faced impatiens, pockmarked gums, six upright pittosporums to keep the neighbours out. It's a jungle. A hiding place. A refuge.

'And then, without warning, that life is over.

'Heartbreaking, fearless, and ablaze with a coruscating beauty all its own, The Paper House tells the story of a woman sinking into the depths of grief, and the desperate efforts of her loved ones to bring her up for air. A sharp-eyed, bittersweet depiction of the love between parents and children, and the havoc that love can wreak.' (Publication summary)