UPDATE: Dream of Things is releasing a paperback edition of Leaving the Hall Light On on August 6th, 2012.
Leaving the Hall Light On combines memoir with an uplifting story of grief recovery, resilience, and survival.
Leaving the Hall Light On charts the near-destruction of one middle-class family whose son committed suicide after a seven-year struggle with bipolar disorder.
Madeline Sharples, author, poet and web journalist, goes deep into her own well of grief to describe her anger, frustration and guilt. She describes many attempts – some successful, some not – to have her son committed to hospital and to keep him on his medication. The book also charts her and her family’s redemption, how she considered suicide herself, and ultimately, her decision to live and take care of herself as a woman, wife, mother and writer.
“A moving read of tragedy, trying to prevent it, and coping with life after.” – Midwest Book Review
“Moving, intimate and very inspiring.” – Mark Shelmerdine, CEO, Jeffers Press
“Poetically visceral, emotionally honest. I will be a better, more empathic psychiatrist, and a better person and friend after reading this extraordinary memoir.” – Irvin D. Godofsky, M.D.
“I recommend this book to suicide survivors and to mental health professionals. Madeline Sharples is much more honest about what it is like to survive suicide than most patients and clients allow themselves to be.” – Fran Edstrom, American Association of Suicidology
“I recommend this book to those who lost a child or who struggle with the mental illness of a child, and to anyone at all who wants a deep, intimate read where the author bares her soul and lets you into her world!” – Bonni Rubenstein, Organizer of Facebook group, Loss of an Adult or Young Adult Child
If my book helps other parents cope with a mentally ill child and offers hope to parents who have had a child die that it is possible to live a full and productive life afterward, I'll feel it is a success.