The Rapids

The Rapids is beautifully written: brimming with humour, empathy, pathos, and heart. This book is an earnest, generous, and important contribution to the ongoing global dialogue around mental health. - Maxine Beneba Clarke

Writing and mental illness make excellent bedfellows, for better or worse. The Rapids—creative and courageous— is an extraordinary personal memoir peppered with film and literary criticism, as well as family history. With reflections on artists such as Carrie Fisher, Kanye West, Robert Lowell, Delmore Schwartz, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Spalding Gray, Twyford-Moore also looks at the condition in our digital world, where someone's manic episode can unfold live in real time, watched by millions.

His own story, told unflinchingly, is shocking and sometimes blackly comic. It gives the book an edge that is not always comfortable but full of insight and empathy. Smart, lively, and well-researched, The Rapids manages to be both a wild ride and introspective at once, exploring a condition that touches thousands of people, directly or indirectly.

Sam Twyford-Moore's The Rapids is a fascinating exploration of the fragility of the mind, states of mania, and how mental ill-health is treated in art and popular culture... his insightfulness, intelligence, and skill as a writer make The Rapids a compelling read. It will particularly appeal to art and culture nerds and anyone interested in learning more about the realities of living with manic depression.' - Meelee Soorkia, Books+Publishing

'Sam Twyford-Moore's The Rapids is a harrowing and thoughtful exploration of all the crap that makes us human.' - Michael Sala, author of The Restorer, Sydney Morning Herald/The Age/Canberra Times 'Reads of the Year' 2018