The Ghost Garden

Inside the Lives of Schizophrenia's Feared and Forgotten

By: Susan Doherty

Narrated by: Paula Kaye

Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

A rare work of narrative non-fiction that illuminates a world most of us try not to see: the daily lives of the severely mentally ill, who are medicated, marginalized, locked away and shunned.

Susan Doherty's groundbreaking book brings us a population of lost souls, ill-served by society, feared, shunted from locked wards to rooming houses to the streets to jail and back again. For the past ten years, some of the people who cycle in and out of the severely ill wards of the Douglas Institute in Montreal have found a friend in Susan, who volunteers on the ward, and then follows her friends out into the world as they struggle to get through their days.

With their full cooperation, she brings us their stories, which challenge the ways we think about people with mental illness throughout the book. The spine of the book is the life of Caroline Evans (not her real name), a woman in her early sixties whom Susan has known since she was a bright and sunny school girl. Caroline had formed a close friendship with Susan and shared stories from her life; through her, we experience what living with schizophrenia over time is really like. She has been through it all, including the way the justice system treats the severely mentally ill: at one point, she believed that she could save her roommate from the devil by pouring boiling water into her ear...

Susan interleaves Caroline's story with vignettes about her other friends, human stories that reveal their hopes, their circumstances, their personalities, their humanity. She's found that if she can hang in through the first ten to fifteen minutes of every coffee date with someone in the grip of psychosis, then true communication results. Their "madness" is not otherworldly: instead it tells us something about how they're surviving their lives and what they've been through. The Ghost Garden is not only touching, but carries a cargo of compassion and empathy.

©2019 Susan Doherty (P)2019 Random House Canada

Critic reviews

Winner of the 2019 Quebec Writers' Federation Literary Awards Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction

“As a neuroscientist who understands the brain and its disorders, I know I still share the unconscious negative bias toward patients with schizophrenia. Yet in the startling detail of these stories about lives lost, Susan Doherty reveals the enduring humanity that resides within the souls of all persons suffering from this dreadful disease. She has given a voice to those unfortunate human beings who have long been unheard.” (Dr. G. Rees Cosgrove, neurosurgeon, Harvard Medical School)

“A luminous, fierce, and loving portrait of our brothers and sisters who suffer in ways that can appear bewildering and frightening; that can deplete the compassion even of those who love them most - ways in which the abiding human need for connection is obscured by personal chaos. The Ghost Garden in itself is a signal and compelling act of connection, leavened with humor, clear-eyed yet packed with hope.” (Ann-Marie MacDonald, novelist and playwright)

“I’m 30 years old and have been in and out of the system for 12 years. It’s about time a book came out that showed the mentally ill the way we actually are - as sentient and as competent as everyone else, though we might appear to be different. I loved reading these stories of unfairly marginalized people, some of whom I know personally. This book is the start of greater acceptance.” (Katharine Cunningham, a resident of Nazareth Community)

great book

great book for ccx anyone who seeks to understand the many nuances of mental illness. Helped me to become aware of the personal conflicts that schizophrenic face.

It Will Break Your Heart and Instill Hope At the Same Time

Thank you Susan Doherty for writing this book. You are the first voice I have encountered that speaks to the complicated, varied and impactful experience of schizophrenics and those that care for them. Your frank compassion will influence others to be more thoughtful about the lives that exists all around us regardless of socioeconomic demographics. The fact that schizophrenia is not anyone’s fault, especially the afflicted. Thank you from a mother of an afflicted adult son.

Wonderful book.

I appreciate this book. Some of my clients have schizophrenia. This book has helpful advice.

Very Helpful

Susan Doherty has provided a vital resource for families trying to understand what's happening when schizophrenia strikes a loved one. It is strange to say that while the accounts in the book can be very familiar, it is also a comfort. I will listen to this book probably several times to fortify myself, to gain and maintain empathy and acceptance. Thank you Susan! Your book makes a difference! The narrator is perfect for this book. She has an easy flowing quality of voice that carries the story with strength and feeling but never gets in the way of the actual text.

Hard not to hear judgement

I am sure the author feels real compassion for her subjects. These are important stories and real peoples lives. I have a son with severe mental illness and many of the anecdotes are familiar. But the constant laundry list of personal hygiene failings and descriptions of filthy living conditions really wore on me. It felt like I was listening to a disapproving aunt. We get it! These people are often unable to keep themselves and their surroundings clean! This harping really prevented me from trusting that story teller respected their struggles to survive.