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Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us Audiobook
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A New York Times Book Review Ten Best Books of 2022
A Wall Street Journal Ten Best Books of 2022
The acclaimed, award-winning New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv offers a groundbreaking exploration of mental illness and the mind, and illuminates the startling connections between diagnosis and identity.
In Strangers to Ourselves, a powerful and gripping debut, Rachel Aviv raises fundamental questions about how we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress. Drawing on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs, Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are. She follows an Indian woman, celebrated as a saint, who lives in healing temples in Kerala; an incarcerated mother vying for her children’s forgiveness after recovering from psychosis; a man who devotes his life to seeking revenge upon his psychoanalysts; and an affluent young woman who, after a decade of defining herself through her diagnosis, decides to go off her meds because she doesn’t know who she is without them. Animated by a profound sense of empathy, Aviv’s exploration is refracted through her own account of living in a hospital ward at the age of six and meeting a fellow patient with whom her life runs parallel—until it no longer does.
Aviv asks how the stories we tell about mental disorders shape their course in our lives. Challenging the way we understand and talk about illness, her account is a testament to the porousness and resilience of the mind.
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“[In] this eye-opening book…Aviv treats her subjects with both scholarly interest and genuine compassion…Moving, meticulously researched.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Awards
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A New York Times Book Review pick of Best Books Now in Paperback
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Among longlisted titles for The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for Vogue Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for Los Angeles Times Best Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for Los Angeles Times Holiday Books Guide, 2022
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Among shortlisted titles for National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee, 2023
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Among longlisted titles for Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for BookPage Best Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2022
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Among longlisted titles for Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2022
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About Andi Arndt
Andi Arndt is a professional voice actor, the winner of a 2017 Audie Award for Best Romance, and winner of two Earphones Awards.