The cover of Tristimania by Jay Griffiths
Published by Hamish Hamilton in the UK
Published by Counterpoint in the USA

Tristimania tells the story of a devastating year-long episode of manic depression, culminating in a long solo pilgrimage across Spain.

The book is rare in recording the experience of mania and shows how the condition is at once terrifying and also profoundly creative, both tricking and treating the psyche.

In exploring its literary influence, Griffiths examines the Trickster role, and explores Shakespeare’s work for deft and telling descriptions of manic depression and traces its mercuriality through the character of Mercury. An intimate, raw journey, the book illuminates something of the universal human spirit.

Praise for

TRISTIMANIA: A diary of manic depression

‘Jay Griffiths has shown in her previous books how fearless an explorer she is of the external world. Now she takes us into another world, even larger, even wilder, one with even greater perils and mysteries to be plumbed and suffered, and brings back even stranger truths.’
Philip Pullman

‘Art and madness have always shadowed each other. Tristimania traces the shadow to its source and watches as it grows long. This is one of the bravest books I’ve read in a long time.’ – Paul Kingsnorth

‘It’s extraordinary. Brave, moving, terrifying, lyrical, occasionally funny, ultimately, so life-affirming.’
Rosie Boycott

‘A book of terrible beauty; a dazzling testament to the moral and literary power of brokenness. I cried, shivered, and then laughed in gratitude for Griffiths’s sheer bloody nerve.’ – Charles Foster

“A searing account of what it can feel like to be swallowed up by a major mental illness” – Iain McGilchrist

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