Lukach, Mark,

My lovely wife in the psych ward : a memoir / Mark Lukach. - First edition. - 305 pages ; 23 cm

Mark and Giulia's life together began as a storybook romance. The fell in love at eighteen, married at twenty-four, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was twenty-seven, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well-adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that she was the devil and that her loved ones were not safe. All she wanted was to die. Eventually, Giulia fully recovered, and the couple had a son. But, soon after Jonas was born, Giulia had another breakdown, and then a third a few years after that. Pushed to the edge of the abyss, everything the couple had once taken for granted was upended. A story of the fragility of the mind, and the tenacity of the human spirit, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward is, above all, a love story that raises profound questions: How do we care for the people we love? What and who do we live for? Breathtaking in its candor, radiant with compassion, and written with dazzling lyricism, Lukach's is an intensely personal odyssey through the harrowing years of his wife's mental illness, anchored by an abiding devotion to family that will affirm readers' faith in the power of love.

ISBN: 9780062422910 006242291X 9780062698391 (tr. pbk.)

LCCN: 2016049549

Subjects--Personal Names:
Lukach, Mark.
Lukach, Giulia--Mental health.

Subjects--Topical Terms:
Psychiatric hospital patients--Biography.
Mentally ill--Commitment and detention.
Husband and wife--Biography.

Dewey Class. No.: 362.2/1092 B