Mind on Fire

Mind on Fire is a truly powerful, arresting, haunting account. Arnold Thomas Fanning has reckoned with the darkest matter of his heart and mind, and I challenge anyone not to be moved by that. – Sara Baume[A] painfully intense, courageous and gripping account of [Fanning’s] journey to the underworld of madness and back. This is a brave and instructive book. * Irish Times *In this strange and singular book, Arnold Thomas Fanning mercilessly excavates the infernal underworld of his own years of madness. As reminiscent as it occasionally is of John Healy’s The Grass Arena, and even of Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, the book is ultimately not quite like anything else I’ve read, and brought me as close to the lived reality of mental illness as I have ever been. It’s a significant achievement: a painful, inexorable work of autobiography, whose existence is its own form of redemption. – Mark O’ConnellThis is an extraordinary memoir about how it feels to be depressed, delusional, desperate * Observer *Extraordinary. An account of mental illness, grief, delusions, homelessness, a fractured family relationship … and all while trying to recover and create. Superb writing on a frequently difficult subject. * Sinéad Gleeson *Arnold Thomas Fanning offers the most vivid and unflinching window into the mind of someone who is in the throes of madness … It was like nothing I’d read before – Rick EdwardsIncredibly important – Emilie Pine, author of Notes to SelfA spellbinding memoir that should prove both moving and hopefully cathartic for the reader * RTÉ Culture *Wonderful – Joseph O’Connor * Irish Times Books of the Year *Told in tight and immediate first-person, and imbued with a startling momentum that ratchets unnervingly, Fanning’s publishing debut … is a significant achievement and should be a talking point in publishing this year * Irish Independent *

Arnold Thomas Fanning was born in London and raised in Dublin. His stage plays include the acclaimed McKenna’s Fort. Mind on Fire is his first book.