Schizophrenia in Fiction and Memoir

Books that explore the realities and possibilities of those living with schizophrenia themselves or in their families.

Updated July 17, 2024
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And now I spill the family secrets : an illustrated memoir
Kimball, Margaret (Illustrator)
Paper Book
Named one of Publishers Weekly's Best of 2021 List in Comics. 2021 Top of the List Graphic Novel Pick In the spirit of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Roz Chast's Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, Margaret Kimball's AND NOW I SPILL THE FAMILY SECRETS...
Bellevue Square : a novel
Redhill, Michael
Paper Book
*Winner of the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize* A darkly comic literary thriller about a woman who fears for her sanity--and then her life--when she learns that her doppelganger has appeared in a local park. Jean Mason has a doppelganger. She's never seen her, but others...
Bitter medicine : a graphic memoir of mental illness
Martini, Clem
Paper Book
In 1976, Ben Martini was diagnosed with schizophrenia. A decade later, his brother Olivier was told he had the same disease. For the past thirty years the Martini family has struggled to comprehend and cope with a devastating illness, frustrated by a health care system lacking in resources and...
Borderline
Labrèche, Marie-Sissi
Paper Book
Searing and lyrical, Marie-Sissi Labrèche's auto-fictional novel, Borderline, describes a young girl's experience growing up in Montreal's working-class neighbourhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. Raised by her "two mothers" - a stern grandmother and a mother struggling with schizophrenia, the story's...
Challenger deep
Shusterman, Neal
Paper Book
National Book Award * Golden Kite Award Winner * Six Starred Reviews A captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman. Caden Bosch is...
The collected schizophrenias : essays
Wang, Esmé Weijun
Paper Book
Powerful, affecting essays on mental illness, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and a Whiting Award An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected...
The edge of every day : sketches of schizophrenia
Sardy, Marin
Paper Book
The debut of an important new literary voice: Marin Sardy's extraordinarily affecting, fiercely intelligent memoir unflinchingly traces the path of the schizophrenia that runs in her family. Against the starkly beautiful backdrop of Anchorage, Alaska, where the author grew up,...
Everything here is beautiful
Lee, Mira T.
Paper Book
A dazzling novel of two sisters and their emotional journey through love, loyalty, and heartbreak Two sisters-Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister's protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing....
Just like someone without mental illness only more so : a memoir
Vonnegut, Mark.
Paper Book
I wrote Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So because I was increasingly annoyed with my younger self, who had wrapped up everything with a bow. You can try but you don't just get to get over mental illness at age twenty-five, go to medical school, write a book, get married and call...
A kind of mirraculas paradise : a true story about schizophrenia
Allen, Sandra (Nonfiction writer)
Paper Book
"Compelling...A bracing work of art and a loving tribute" (Los Angeles Times), this propulsive, stunning book illuminates the experience of living with schizophrenia like never before. Sandra Allen did not know their uncle Bob very well. As a child, Sandy had been told Bob...
Like crazy : life with my mother and her invisible friends
Mathews, Dan
Paper Book
"Exquisite. Full of wry humor, tenderness, and compassion." --Jeannette Walls, New York Times bestselling author A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir about an outlandish mother and son on an odyssey of self-discovery, and the rag-tag community that rallied to help them...
Pacifique
Taggart, Sarah L.
Paper Book
LAMBDA LITERARY OCTOBER'S MOST ANTICIPATED LGBTQIA+ LITERATURE 49th SHELF TOP 22 BOOKS OF 2022 Is love real if the beloved isn't? Girl, Interrupted meets Rebecca in this taut tale of love and madness When Tia meets Pacifique, it's a...
A particular kind of black man : a novel
Folarin, Tope
Paper Book
An NPR Best Book of 2019 A New York Times, Washington Post, Telegraph, and BBC's most anticipated book of August 2019 One of Time's 32 Books You Need to Read This Summer A stunning debut novel, from...
The place between breaths
An, Na
Paper Book
From master storyteller and Printz Award-winning author An Na comes a dark, intensely moving story of a girl desperately determined to find a cure for the illness that swept her mother away, and could possibly destroy her own life as well. Sixteen-year-old Grace is in a race...
When the sun bursts : the enigma of schizophrenia
Bollas, Christopher
Paper Book
A leading psychoanalyst shares his experiences working with schizophrenic patients to show how effective talk therapy can be as a treatment   Many schizophrenics experience their condition as one of radical incarceration, mind-altering medications,...

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