The Noonday Demon
is Andrew Solomon’s National Book Award-winning, bestselling, and
transformative masterpiece on depression—“the book for a
generation, elegantly written, meticulously researched, empathetic,
and enlightening” (Time)—now
with a major new chapter covering recently introduced and novel
treatments, suicide and anti-depressants, pregnancy and depression,
and much more.
The Noonday Demon
examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms.
Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with
fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policy makers and
politicians, drug designers, and philosophers, Andrew Solomon reveals
the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease as well as the
reasons for hope. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness
and describes the vast range of available medications and treatments,
and the impact the malady has on various demographic
populations—around the world and throughout history. He also
explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by
biological explanations for mental illness. With uncommon humanity,
candor, wit and erudition, award-winning author Solomon takes readers
on a journey of incomparable range and resonance into the most
pervasive of family secrets. His contribution to our understanding
not only of mental illness but also of the human condition is truly
stunning.