Reasons to Stay Alive

What Does It mean To Feel Truly Alive? Aged 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again. A moving, funny and joyous exploration of how to live better, love better and feel more alive, Reasons to Stay Alive is more than a memoir. It is a book about making the most of your time on earth. "I wrote this book because the oldest cliches remain the truest. Time heals. The bottom of the valley never provides the clearest view. The tunnel does have light at the end of it, even if we haven't been able to see it ...Words, just sometimes, really can set you free."

Matt Haig is the author of five adult novels including the bestselling The Humans, a World Book Night title in 2014, and The Radleys, which was selected for Channel 4's TV Book Club and was voted winner of the series in 2011. He has also written for children and young adults and his work has been translated into thirty languages. www.matthaig.com @matthaig1 #reasonstostayalive

* Maybe the most important book I've read this year -- SIMON MAYO * A life-saving book -- AMANDA CRAIG * Brings a difficult and sensitive subject out of the darkness and into the light -- MICHAEL PALIN * Full of wisdoms and warmth -- NATHAN FILER * Matt Haig is a marvellous writer: limpid; tender; passionate. In this memoir (and it's short, barely 200 pages long), he manages to articulate, both the bleakness of depression and the means of dealing with it, little by little, day by day, without ever sounding maudlin, or self-indulgent, or preachy. For everyone who has ever felt the snap of the black dog's teeth, this book is wise, funny, affirming and redemptive. Sometimes depression can be like falling into a wordless pit. Matt Haig finds the words. And he says them for all of us -- JOANNE HARRIS * Reasons to Stay Alive is wonderful. I read it in one sitting. Touching, funny, thought-provoking, with a huge heart. It should be read by anyone who has suffered, or known someone who has suffered (i.e. everyone) --