The Heartland review – fascinating study of schizophrenia
In 1980s Ireland, Brigid becomes obsessed with a photo of a statue of the Virgin Mary and things spiral devastatingly from there. Erica is a hardworking fashion journalist in her 20s who believes the contraceptive coil she has had fitted is actually a camera planted by MI5. James is training at Sandhurst when he finds himself on parade in his pyjamas.
Each of these vignettes forms part of an instructive case study in Nathan Filer's intelligent, absorbing narrative exploration of schizophrenia, The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia. Filer, you may recall, deservedly won just about every major fiction award in 2013 (including the Costa book of the year) for his debut novel, The Shock of the Fall, which told the story of a young man dealing with mental illness and grief. Both that novel, and this, his first full-length nonfiction book, are informed by his earlier career as a mental-health nurse.
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