Maybe the most important book I've read this year -- SIMON MAYO A life-saving book -- AMANDA CRAIG Brings a difficult and sensitive subject out of the darkness and into the light -- MICHAEL PALIN Full of wisdoms and warmth -- NATHAN FILER Matt Haig is a marvellous writer: limpid; tender; passionate. In this memoir (and it's short, barely 200 pages long), he manages to articulate, both the bleakness of depression and the means of dealing with it, little by little, day by day, without ever sounding maudlin, or self-indulgent, or preachy. For everyone who has ever felt the snap of the black dog's teeth, this book is wise, funny, affirming and redemptive. Sometimes depression can be like falling into a wordless pit. Matt Haig finds the words. And he says them for all of us -- JOANNE HARRIS Reasons to Stay Alive is wonderful. I read it in one sitting. Touching, funny, thought-provoking, with a huge heart. It should be read by anyone who has suffered, or known someone who has suffered (i.e.. everyone) -- S J WATSON Fascinating and beautifully written -- IAN RANKIN Matt Haig uses words like a tin-opener. We are the tin -- JEANETTE WINTERSON Thoughtful, honest and incredibly insightful -- JENNY COLGAN Brilliant and salutary . . . should be on prescription -- REV. RICHARD COLES
