Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness
Written by Catherine Cho
Narrated by Catherine Cho
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Inferno is the riveting memoir of a young mother who is separated from her newborn son and husband when she's involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward in New Jersey after a harrowing bout of postpartum psychosis.
This program is read by the author.
When Catherine Cho and her husband set off from London to introduce their newborn son to family scattered across the United States, she could not have imagined what lay in store. Before the trip’s end, she develops psychosis, a complete break from reality, which causes her to lose all sense of time and place, including what is real and not real. In desperation, her husband admits her to a nearby psychiatric hospital, where she begins the hard work of rebuilding her identity.
In this unwaveringly honest, insightful, and often shocking memoir Catherine reconstructs her sense of self, starting with her childhood as the daughter of Korean immigrants, moving through a traumatic past relationship, and on to the early years of her courtship with and marriage to her husband, James. She masterfully interweaves these parts of her past with a vivid, immediate recounting of the days she spent in the ward.
The result is a powerful exploration of psychosis and motherhood, at once intensely personal, yet holding within it a universal experience – of how we love, live and understand ourselves in relation to each other.
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
Editor's Note
Courageously honest…
Londoners Catherine Cho and her husband planned a dream trip to introduce their new baby to family around the United States. The dream ended in a nightmare when Cho was involuntarily checked into a New Jersey psych ward. In this courageously honest memoir, Cho details the severe psychosis she suffered, and unflinchingly examines family and cultural pressures that may have contributed.
Catherine Cho
Catherine Cho is a literary agent in the UK. Originally from the United States, she’s lived in New York and Hong Kong, and she currently lives in London with her family. Inferno is her first book.
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Reviews for Inferno
49 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A beautifully told and harrowing account of a new mothers descent in to mental illness and out again.