Night Falls Fast - by Kay Redfield Jamison (Paperback)

About the Book

From the author of the bestselling memoir "An Unquiet Mind" comes this groundbreaking look at suicide and its terrible pull on the young in particular. This is a book that helps readers to understand the suicidal mind and to recognize and come to the aid of those at risk, and to comprehend the profound effects on those left behind.

Book Synopsis

Critical reading for parents, educators, and anyone wanting to understand the tragic epidemic of suicide--"a powerful book [that] will change people's lives--and, doubtless, save a few" (Newsday).

The first major book in a quarter century on suicide--and its terrible pull on the young in particular--Night Falls Fast is tragically timely: suicide has become one of the most common killers of Americans between the ages of fifteen and forty-five.

From the author of the best-selling memoir, An Unquiet Mind--and an internationally acknowledged authority on depression--Dr. Jamison has also known suicide firsthand: after years of struggling with manic-depression, she tried at age twenty-eight to kill herself. Weaving together a historical and scientific exploration of the subject with personal essays on individual suicides, she brings not only her remarkable compassion and literary skill but also all of her knowledge and research to bear on this devastating problem. This is a book that helps us to understand the suicidal mind, to recognize and come to the aid of those at risk, and to comprehend the profound effects on those left behind.

Review Quotes

"Jamison writes with authority, clarity and clinical reserve. Powerful as her medicine is, her poetic accounting of this dark death is more affecting still."--Baltimore Sun

"Jamison brings us face to face with the suicidal mind in a manner so intense and penetrating that, paradoxically, the immersion in despair she offers is a source of great pleasure."--The Washington Post Book World

"This powerful book will change people's lives--and, doubtless, save a few."--Newsday

"A profound and impassioned book--it will stand as the authoritative study of suicide for many years."--William Styron, author of Darkness Visible

"[Jamison] writes not only in fierce opposition to suicide, but also in passionate vindication of life."--The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

KAY REDFIELD JAMISON is a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as well as an honorary professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is the author of the national best sellers An Unquiet Mind, Night Falls Fast, and Touched with Fire. She is coauthor of the standard medical text on manic-depressive illness and author or coauthor of more than one hundred scientific papers about mood disorders, creativity, and psychopharmacology. Dr. Jamison, the recipient of numerous national and international scientific awards, is a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow.