My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward

by Mark Lukach

Overview

International Bestseller

A heart-wrenching, yet hopeful, memoir of a young marriage that is redefined by mental illness and affirms the power of love.

Mark and Giulia’s life together began as a storybook romance. They fell in love at eighteen, married at twenty-four, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was twenty-seven, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well-adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that her loved ones were not safe.

Eventually, Giulia fully recovered, and the couple had a son. But, soon after Jonas was born, Giulia had another breakdown, and then a third a few years after that. Pushed to the edge of the abyss, everything the couple had once taken for granted was upended.

A story of the fragility of the mind, and the tenacity of the human spirit, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward is, above all, a love story that raises profound questions: How do we care for the people we love? What and who do we live for? Breathtaking in its candor, radiant with compassion, and written with dazzling lyricism, Lukach’s is an intensely personal odyssey through the harrowing years of his wife’s mental illness, anchored by an abiding devotion to family that will affirm readers’ faith in the power of love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062422934
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Mark Lukach is a teacher and freelance writer. His work has been published in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Pacific Standard, Wired, and other publications. He is the ninth-grade dean at the Athenian School, where he also teaches history. He lives with his wife, Giulia, and their two sons in the San Francisco Bay area.

Table of Contents

1 August 2000 1

2 July 2009 16

3 September 2009 46

4 October 2009 81

5 April 2010 111

6 August 2010 139

7 September 2011 154

8 October 2012 173

9 November 2012 202

10 April 2013 222

11 October 2014 242

12 November 2014 276

Acknowledgments 303

Editorial Reviews

…Lukach's rare combination of tenderness and ruthlessness is what makes this book more interesting than your typical illness narrative. His love for Giulia is apparent on every page, but he also hates her in moments and is willing to show us why.

The New York Times Book Review - Meghan Daum

Honest and heartfelt, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward tells the difficult story of a marriage tested by mental illness, and reminds us that true love is never easy.” — Kyle Boelte, author of The Beautiful Unseen

“Lukach’s rare combination of tenderness and ruthlessness is what makes this book more interesting than your typical illness narrative.” — New York Times Book Review

“An honest and rewarding memoir of a couple’s compassion and love for each other.”   — Kirkus Reviews

“This gorgeous memoir gives readers a raw and unvarnished account of what it’s like to live with and love someone with a severe mental illness. There are moments of gut-wrenching sadness—but, ultimately, the story is hopeful, even triumphant. This book basically tore out my heart and then lovingly sewed it back in place.” — Susannah Cahalan, bestselling author of Brain on Fire

“My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward is a compelling memoir and a heartrending tale of love, madness, and redemption. Like a long-distance trail runner, Mark Lukach embarks on a harrowing journey deep into the woods of psychosis and through the dark twists and turns of his wife’s illness and gradual recovery. But his loyalty to her never wavers, and his story is a testament to the healing power of love and endurance.” — Stuart H. Coleman, author of Eddie Would Go

“Lukach lyrically transforms our understanding of love, mental illness, patience, and devotion in this stunning memoir. With moving and touching prose, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward describes what it’s like to have the picture of your life smashed in an instant and subsequently reassembled miraculously.” — Mayim Bialik, PhD, neuroscientist, actress, and New York Times bestselling author

“The deeply passionate account of the couple’s journey through Giulia’s psychotic break and recovery…through it all Lukach explores the fragility of the human mind alongside the resilience of true love and partnership.” — Bustle

From the Publisher

Lukach lyrically transforms our understanding of love, mental illness, patience, and devotion in this stunning memoir. With moving and touching prose, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward describes what it’s like to have the picture of your life smashed in an instant and subsequently reassembled miraculously.

Mayim Bialik

The deeply passionate account of the couple’s journey through Giulia’s psychotic break and recovery…through it all Lukach explores the fragility of the human mind alongside the resilience of true love and partnership.

Bustle

Honest and heartfelt, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward tells the difficult story of a marriage tested by mental illness, and reminds us that true love is never easy.

Kyle Boelte

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward is a compelling memoir and a heartrending tale of love, madness, and redemption. Like a long-distance trail runner, Mark Lukach embarks on a harrowing journey deep into the woods of psychosis and through the dark twists and turns of his wife’s illness and gradual recovery. But his loyalty to her never wavers, and his story is a testament to the healing power of love and endurance.

Stuart H. Coleman

This gorgeous memoir gives readers a raw and unvarnished account of what it’s like to live with and love someone with a severe mental illness. There are moments of gut-wrenching sadness—but, ultimately, the story is hopeful, even triumphant. This book basically tore out my heart and then lovingly sewed it back in place.

Susannah Cahalan

Lukach’s rare combination of tenderness and ruthlessness is what makes this book more interesting than your typical illness narrative.

New York Times Book Review

In this audio memoir, Mark Lukach shares what it is like to watch his beautiful wife, Giulia, suddenly experience a psychotic break and be hospitalized against her will, and then take care of her when she comes home, including doling out medications and hiding the rest so that she can’t act on her suicidal impulses. He is scared, shocked, mystified, helpless, and angry. It’s heartbreaking stuff to listen to, and narrator Josh Bloomberg is truly perfect. He conveys every emotion that Lukach expresses—devastation at Giulia’s delusions and repeated hospitalizations, frustration with the inflexibility and inexactitude of the mental health system, sheer exhaustion and occasional resentment at being a caregiver, and joy at seeing the depression lift before his eyes in an aerobics class full of elderly Asian women. An important story and a lovely performance. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile

2017-03-15
How one couple battled together against the wife's mental health issue.Lukach, a ninth-grade teacher, and his wife, Giulia, had a near-perfect life. They'd met in college, almost instantly became a couple, and quickly grew their relationship into a classic love story. They had successful jobs, ambitions, and dreams that filled their lives. The years passed, and they agreed to have children. However, shortly after starting a new job, Giulia became increasingly anxious about work and life in general, and she began experiencing full-blown psychosis, requiring immediate hospitalization. Lukach does an excellent job of showing the rapid decline his wife experienced as she went through her first, second, and third breakdowns, the evolution of his role as caretaker and partner, and the roles played by their immediate families and closest friends in the recovery process. The author details the harrowing first moments in the hospital when no one quite knew what was happening to Giulia and the endless time he spent struggling to get answers from doctors and nurses. "The first few days of Giulia's hospitalization," he writes, "I spent almost every waking hour on the phone….With every call I made, I grew increasingly agitated at the inflexibility of the mental health system." Lukach recounts the deep, suicidal depression Giulia endured after returning home and the fears he felt for his wife's safety. The end of the first breakdown will come as a great relief to readers; by the third breakdown, they will know what to expect but will also share the author's fears for the safety and well-being of their young son. Lukach's compassion and love for his wife, as well as his fears and anger, are evident throughout, making this memoir a satisfying read despite the context of the story. An honest and rewarding memoir of a couple's compassion and love for each other.

Kirkus Reviews