Your voice in my head

Your voice in my head, by Emma Forrest 

Emma Forrest was just 22 when she realised her ‘oddness’ was taking her too far. She had moved from unhappy and eccentric, to self-destructive, even suicidal.

She tells her story through good and sad relationships, some oddball writing jobs, a cat love-affair, great therapy and relapses.

Forrest is an immensely skilful writer, writing her kind of madness in a logical and lovely way, giving the reader an inkling of how it must feel to live in a mind which is partly unreasonable. There is pain, of course, but there is also a kind of conscious delight in the erratic connections she makes.

Forrest cuts herself, a common self-mutilation phenomenon, especially among young women. It’s inexplicable to others. Here, the sense of relief cutting provide is described with almost loving intensity.

Many of us have friends or family who teeter on the edge of some kind of abyss, or some kind of unreality. Perhaps in times in our own lives, we are there ourselves. This book is an excellent read for any of us, showing how movable a concept “normal” is, and how unstable solid ground.

Buy Your voice in my head here