#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine The End of Miracles by Monica Starkman @shewritespress

International Book Awards 2016 finalist for literary fiction

Margo Kerber has endured difficult years battling infertility while trying to sustain her good marriage and satisfying career. When a seemingly miraculous pregnancy ends in a late miscarriage, Margo is devastated. For a time, the unshakable yet false belief that she is pregnant again provides relief from all-consuming grief. When her fantasy inevitably clashes with reality, Margo falls into a deep depression requiring admission to a psychiatric unit. Uncertain if the sometimes chaotic environment there is helping or making her worse, she seizes an opportunity to flee. Alone on the city streets, new fantasies propel her to commit a crime with devastating consequences for herself and others.

Written by a prominent psychiatrist, this stirring portrait of one woman’s psychological unraveling takes readers on a journey across the blurred boundaries between sanity and depression, madness and healing.

What an amazing book.  Filled with intrigue, suspense and sheer engagement of the mind.  Starkman really gets the human mind and can capture its unraveling after heartbreak with such sharp detail and honors the struggles faced by many.  The story was twisty and turny and kept me gripped me to the pages.  It was intense, well drawn out and one not to be missed.  It was almost hard to put into words how I felt about this book, so please read this book and come back and tell me your thoughts! We all need to talk about this book! 

#FirstLine ~ The dream was always the same—a flood of babies dribbling out of her mouth, dozens, tumbling head over heels. 

http://www.monicastarkmanauthor.com

I am a psychiatrist/novelist. As a faculty member of the University of Michigan Medical School's Department of Psychiatry, I'm a clinician, scientific researcher and teacher. My novel: The End of Miracles, draws deeply from my experiences on psychiatric units and with patients. I also write regularly and have my own page as an Expert for Psychology Today : https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/... . Other articles have been in MariaShriver.com, The New Republic and Vogue. I publish the results of my research in the scientific literature. These articles are primarily about the effects of stress hormones on mood and brain structure. I also study conditions related to women (such as the first investigation of women’s reactions to the use of fetal monitors during labor). This interest, too, is at the core of The End of Miracles. So you could say that my two professions: psychiatrist and novelist, are two sides of the same coin.