Running Like China: A memoir of a life interrupted by madness - Softcover

Hardcastle, Sophie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0733634265 ISBN 13: 9780733634260

Publisher: Hachette Australia, 2015

Synopsis

'When I was eleven years old Mum told me, "One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name." Even before I heard these words I was always a child who crammed intense joy into tiny pockets of time.' One day Sophie Hardcastle realised the joy she'd always known had disappeared. She was constantly tired, with no energy, no motivation and no sense of enjoyment for surfing, friends, conversations, movies, parties, family - for anything. Her hours became empty. And then, the month before she turned seventeen, that emptiness filled with an intense, unbearable sadness that made her scream and tear at her skin. Misdiagnosed with chronic fatigue, then major depression, then temporal lobe epilepsy, she was finally told - three years, two suicide attempts and five hospital admissions later - that she had Bipolar 1 Disorder. In this honest and beautifully told memoir, Sophie lays bare her story of mental illness - of a teenage girl using drugs, alcohol and sex in an attempt to fix herself; of her family's anguish and her loss of self. It is a brave and hopeful story of adaptation, learning to accept and of ultimately realising that no matter how deep you have sunk, the surface is always within reach. RUNNING LIKE CHINA shatters the silence and smashes the taboos around mental illness. It is an unforgettable story.

About this title

Review:

Interview (Kids Book Reviews)

Mention, event recap, Date a Book YA Blogger Night, August 2015 (Kat Kennedy Cuddlebuggery Book Blog)

Mention, event recap, Date a Book YA Blogger Night (Genie in a Book)

Mention, event recap, Date a Book YA Blogger Night (Sweet Little Pretties)

Mention, event recap, Date a Book YA blogger night (The Never Ending Bookshelf)

Mention, event recap, Date a Book YA blogger night (Words on Paper)

Please, please make the effort to track this book down. (Escape Club)

Instagram shoutout (Emmgurr)

PICK OF THE WEEK + written with raw honesty, immediacy and heart-felt lyricism, her tale is one that will resonate deeply with young people in particular (Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday Age, Canberra Times, Daily Advertiser, Burnie Advocate, Bendigo Advertiser, Ballarat Courier)

Book Description:

A brave, honest, unforgettable memoir about mental illness that breaks the silence and shatters the taboos to give hope to all those struggling to find their way through.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hachette Australia
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0733634265
• ISBN 13: 9780733634260
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288