There are many descriptive words we use to try and encapsulate the experience of reading a book that aligns almost magically with our own. There are also not enough. We tend to read and re-read reviews and gushing adjectives so many times that we are almost numbed to their meaning. Honest, gripping, moving, hilarious, poignant, heartbreaking… We’re used to contemporary culture liberally sprinkling compliments as they bedeck their many artisan cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles. There are, likewise, experiences which are hard to translate into words, and those where words elude us – they are too many, or too dangerous, or they escape expression, or maybe the same words repeat on a loop in our heads until we could scream. There are books like “Reasons To Stay Alive” which manage to achieve this magical hat trick. Finding the right words, then describing the author’s experience of depression and panic disorder and anxiety in a compelling, emotionally resonant and achingly true a
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