All in the Mind
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- 8,99 €
-
- 8,99 €
Publisher Description
Martin Sturrock desperately needs a psychiatrist. The problem? He is one.
Emily is a traumatised burns victim, Arta a Kosovan refugee recovering from a rape. David Temple is a longterm depressive, while the Rt Hon Ralph Hall MP lives in terror of his drink problem being exposed. Very different Londoners, but they share one thing: every week they spend an hour at the Prince Regent hospital, revealing the secrets of their psyche to Professor Martin Sturrock. Little do they know that Sturrock's own mind is not the reassuring place they believe it to be. For years he has hidden in his work, ignoring his demons. But now his life is falling apart, and as his ghosts come back to haunt him, the only person he can turn to is a patient.
Set over a life-changing weekend, Alastair Campbell's astonishing first novel delves deep into the human mind to create a gripping portrait of the strange dependency between patient and doctor. Both a comedy and tragedy of ordinary lives, it is rich in compassion for those whose days are spent on the edge of the abyss.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Campbell, Tony Blair's former spokesman and director of communications and strategy, has crafted a skillful and compelling debut novel about Martin Sturrock, a psychiatrist whose simmering meltdown informs him that he may be in need of treatment of his own. The novel weaves together the stories of Sturrock's patients a woman victimized by sex traffickers, a philandering lawyer, an alcoholic MP, a depressed factory worker, an Albanian refugee raped during a home invasion on the streets of contemporary multicultural London. With their many flaws, Campbell's characters are fully formed people sharply observed and nicely nuanced and while plenty of time is spent in sessions, no prescriptions are ever issued, keeping Campbell away from clumsy aphorisms or magic pill answers to the problems that ripple out into the patients' (and shrink's) families and the wider world around them. Interestingly, Campbell takes a few swipes at his former political life, depicting it as full of backstabbing treachery and cutthroat competition. Despite the sometimes brutal subject matter, the many moments of kindness and hope make this a strong first novel providing much catharsis in its own right.
