ROLL BACK THE WORLD
A Sister's Memoir
Praise
"Kasdan's memoir thoughtfully examines the life-long impact of schizophrenia on the family—both the complicated dynamics around making meaning out of the loved one's experience and finding effective treatment within a broken mental health care system. Roll Back the World is at once a heartfelt tribute for a lost sister and a call to action."
–Grace Cho, author of Tastes Like War, 2021 National Book Awards non-fiction finalist
". . . a compelling and honest book about the many complexities that impact a family when the oldest sibling has a serious mental health condition. When her sister became ill, the family was without appropriate support or education. The author’s father helped to start NAMI as a result, transforming their family experience into service to others.”
"Roll Back the World is a complex, layered story that will stick with readers a long time."
–Indie Global Reads, Fall 2023 Shelf Unbound (pg 115)
“Intelligent and probing. . . profoundly moving. . . The author delves deeply into memory and family dynamics to understand her sister’s diagnosis and, in doing so, finds self-forgiveness for being unable to save her sister."
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"… a riveting, courageous and highly personal account of a descent into madness and the mental health system's sorely misguided response. . . By training her sharp eye not only on her sister's sad struggle but also on the complexity of the surrounding family situation, Deborah Kasdan opens a window to a time when psychiatry was emboldened by the advent of new drugs that turned out way more harmful than expected.”
–Peter Stastny, psychiatrist, filmmaker and a co-author of The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
“Poignant and filled with unrelenting dedication to her sister's plight, the author sensitively narrates a family's search for alternative mental health care, the physical and emotional price it pays, and the sheer goodness of caring professionals and neighbors. Peppered with poetry and letters, this is an important memoir."
–Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone, author of Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma, 2020 Nautilus Book Award: Gold in Psychology
"This raw, real and loving memoir spotlights the loss and responsibility felt by one family when serious mental illness strikes. It is told through the eyes of a sister who struggles to understand and help, but also live her own life while her sister, a gifted poet, disappears behind the symptoms of schizophrenia. Read it also for a glimpse into the decades of shifting attitudes and theories toward mental illness as well as the heartbreaking effects on the author and her family, whose enduring love keeps them struggling to help against devastating odds and stigma.”
–Peter Stastny, psychiatrist, filmmaker and a co-author of The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic