Everyone In This Room Will One Day Be Dead by Emily Austin

BOOKS THAT CHANGE YOU

I needed to get this debut up on our page immediately. In case someone needed this today. Usually I let books percolate in my mind, assessing how much they stay with me, but Everyone in This Room will Someday be Dead has that rare ability to help people suffering and give others insight, changing their understanding completely. I felt this way about Caste by @isabelwilkerson which transformed my view of race and the caste systems. 

You are catapulted into the mind of Gilda, a gay 29 year old atheist who works in a church and is descending into intense anxiety and depression. She scrutinises everything on a molecular level, from large existential questions to everyday activities, fixating on death and the meaning of life. 

There is a plot here which is at times comedic but for me the overarching power is the portrayal of the physical manifestation of mental ill health and the constant onslaught of intrusive thoughts and suicidal ideations she experiences. I have in my privileged life always wondered how anyone could be so desperate that they are driven to end their lives, who seemingly have everything, when there is so much beauty and joy, when there must be another option, when we are so lucky compared to others living without running water and basic freedoms.

This book answered those questions. When someone is so consumed with fear, faced with a barrage of questions they cannot control, it must take a Herculean effort to get help or to just carry on. The writing of this novel is astoundingly clever, the prose at times like shards of glass piercing through Gildas stream of consciousness. 

The impact of this book can be seen in some of the reviews. Readers immensely comforted that they are not alone, given hope, family members who only now appreciate an iota of what a loved one has faced. This is in a category of books such as Sorrow and Bliss, The Midnight Library, Eleanor Oliphant and should be compulsory reading for healthcare practitioners. Thank you so much to @atlanticbooks for our proof copy and @emilyraustinauthor congratulations on your debut, this will stay with me for a long time.

~ Chaya {Ad: PR Copy}