parents of mentally ill children

In this riveting story--part memoir, detective story, and scientific investigation--in the tradition of the story of Henrietta Lacks, Costello recounts how the mental unraveling of her seventeen-year-old son Alex compelled her to look back into family history for clues to his condition. Eventually she tied Alex's descent into hallucinations and months of shoeless wandering on the streets of Los Angeles to his great grandfather's suicide on a New York City railroad track in 1913.

The author describes his and his family's experiences after his fifteen-year-old daughter Sally had her first manic episode in 1996 and had to be committed to a New York psychiatric facility for treatment.

The author describes his and his family's experiences after his fifteen-year-old daughter Sally had her first manic episode in 1996 and had to be committed to a New York psychiatric facility for treatment.