Thank you for recommending this book. I just read it based on your review. It was devastating. I say devastating because of the amount of mental pain and anguish the characters endure all the way through, despite caring and capable therapists and caregivers. The textbook descriptions of mental illness we read in nursing school were just clinical facts; this was the best picture ever painted in words of what it's like to actually be and think like a schizophrenic, medicated or not, and, in the case of the other main character, someone undergoing grief at a traumatized level along with PTSD. It was written by a therapist. Many times the writing, the dialog, is very stilted and simple, to the point where you think the characters are mentally challenged (as opposed to, or in addition to, mentally ill), but I think it's because it's a book that's meant to teach people of various levels and abilities.