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A powerful work of non-fiction and the natural sequel to The Shock of the Fall

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´BRILLIANT. I don´t understand how a book on this subject can be so enjoyable, but it is. I love it.´ PHILIPPA PERRY

´Absolutely blew me away... I cannot think of another book in the field that would come close to this. In my opinion it is an essential read for those in the mental health arena and anyone whose relative has been touched with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.´ JO BRAND

´Erudite, well-researched, and full of compassion... This book will change the way people understand schizophrenia, and that change is long overdue.´ CHRISTIE WATSON, author of The Language of Kindness

´A truly important book. ´ MAX PORTER, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny

´I have never read a more powerful book about mental health. it has the ability to change the way people think about mental illness.´ JOANNA CANNON, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
Schizophrenia: whether it´s the associations it conjures or the people it brings to mind, it is a word we all have a view on. How we perceive it - and how we treat people living with it - is at the core of how we understand mental health.

But what do we really know? How much time do we spend listening? Do we truly comprehend this complex and often contradictory diagnosis?

In The Heartland Nathan Filer, mental health nurse and award winning writer, takes us on a journey into the psychiatric wards he once worked on. He also invites us to spend time with world-leading experts, and with some extraordinary people who share their own stories - true stories - about living with this strange and misunderstood condition.

The Heartland debunks myths, challenges assumptions and offers fresh insight into what it means to be mad.

And what it means to be human.

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A truly important book. Radically open-hearted and vitally open-minded. I would implore you to read it, and share it, and talk about it. Max Porter, author of GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS and LANNY

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Nathan Filer is a qualifiedmental health nurse. The Shock of the Fall, his novel about the life of a young man grieving the loss of his brother, has sold over half a million copies in the UK, was a Sunday Times bestseller and translated into thirty languages. It won The Costa Book of the Year, The Betty Trask Prize, The National Book Award for Popular Fiction and The Writers´ Guild Award for Best First Novel.

He has written for the Guardian and the New York Times. His BBC radio 4 documentary, The Mind in the Media, which explored portrayals of mental illness in fiction and journalism was shortlisted for a Mind Media Award. He´s currently a Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

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