On an October night in 1962, the voices had arrived without a warning. Ken Steele was only fourteen years old. The voices told him to kill himself, that the world would be better off without him and that he was no good at all. Ken had been listening to the radio in his home in Connecticut and began to think he was in a nightmare but realized he was not asleep. He knew he could not tell his parents because he was already a big enough disappointment to them. Ken's father wanted him to play baseball and become a professional, Ken wanted to read and write. His parents were in denial and Ken was in and out of hospitals being diagnosed with schizophrenia. When he turned eighteen he moved to New York alone and began a publishing job. Ken was suicidal and had attempted many times to set himself afire, hang himself or jump off of a tall building. Finally Ken had been checked into Manhattan Psychiatric Center, where they evaluated and tried to help Ken Steele with his mental illness. Ken had spent thirty-two years of torture from inner voices demanding him to kill himself. In this inspiring novel, Ken tells the story of his recovery from schizophrenia, his insanity, paranoia and coping with the out-side world with schizophrenia. Ken Steele still had hope despite his insanity and mental illness; he yearned for a state of sanctuary and wanted to be helped. He died from heart failure on October 7th, 2000 and would have been fifty-two on October 9th.

Steele's book is one of the best I've seen on the subject. He tells us an insider's view of schizophrenia that is rarely portrayed so accurately. He does not tout a particular drug or a particular doctor, therapy, or procedure, which I feel is important because so many times an author credits a "miracle cure" for their recovery. There are many treatments for this illness and the appropriate one may differ from one person to another. I found I could identify with Ken in his quest to start living after thirty years of being out of commission, his drive to unite people with mental illnesses and improve conditions for us all. After I went through 18 years of mental illness and recovered, it seems there is a lot to do to make up for lost time. The memory of Ken Steele will stay with the reader for a long time, and so will his message.