Tristimania ─ A Diary of Manic Depression

"There are galaxies within the human mind, and madness wants to risk everything for the daring flight, reckless and beautiful and crazed. Everyone knows Icarus fell.But I love him for the fact that he dared to fly. Mania unfurls the invitation to fly too high, too near the sun..."

Tristimania is a stark and lyrical account of the psyche in crisis. It tells the story of a devastating year-long episode of manic depression, culminating in a long solo pilgrimage across Spain. The book is rare in recording the experience of mania and shows how the condition is at once terrifying and also profoundly creative, both tricking and treating the psyche. In exploring its literary influence, Griffiths looks at Shakespeare's work, and examines the Trickster role, tracing its mercuriality through the character of Mercury. An intimate, raw journey, the book illuminates something of the universal human spirit.

Jay Griffiths is the author of A Sideways Look at Time, Savage Grace, A Country Called Childhood, and A Love Letter from a Stray Moon. She won the Orion Book Award and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for the best new non-fiction writer to be published in the USA and has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.