Tracy Thompson was a well-regarded reporter for The Washington Post when, in 1989, she found herself in the terrifying, suicidal free-fall of a major depressive episode, the return of a Beast that had haunted her since her childhood in the traditionalist South.

She survived - but unlike countless writers before her, Thompson did not survive to write a book about "madness" or about twentieth-century victimization. Instead, like a good reporter, she kept notes and asked questions. The result is a lyrical yet dispassionate account of a lifelong battle to survive a mental illness. It chronicles her struggle to reclaim her career, her growing intellectual interest in depression, and her sobering realization of the toll her illness took on the people who loved her.