The Memory Palace

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The Memory Palace

In the tradition of The Glass Castle, two sisters confront schizophrenia in this poignant literary memoir about family and mental illness. Through stunning prose and original art, The Memory Palace captures the love between mother and daughter, the complex meaning of truth, and familyâ€™s capacity for forgiveness

â€œPeople have abandoned their loved ones for much less than youâ€™ve been through,â€ Mira BartÃ³k is told at her motherâ€™s memorial service. It is a poignant observation about the relationship between Mira, her sister, and their mentally ill mother. Before she was struck with schizophrenia at the age of nineteen, beautiful piano protÃ©gÃ© Norma Herr had been the most vibrant personality in the room. She loved her daughters and did her best to raise them well, but as her mental state deteriorated, Norma spoke less about Chopin and more about Nazis and her fear that her daughters would be kidnapped, murdered, or raped.

When the girls left for college, the harassment escalatedâ€”Norma called them obsessively, appeared at their apartments or jobs, threatened to kill herself if they did not return home. After a traumatic encounter, Mira and her sister were left with no choice but to change their names and sever all contact with Norma in order to stay safe. But while Mira pursued her career as an artistâ€”exploring the ancient romance of Florence, the eerie mysticism of northern Norway, and the raw desert of Israelâ€”the haunting memories of her mother were never far away.

Then one day, a debilitating car accident changes Miraâ€™s life forever. Struggling to recover from a traumatic brain injury, she was confronted with a need to recontextualize her lifeâ€”she had to relearn how to paint, read, and interact with the outside world. In her search for a way back to her lost self, Mira reached out to the homeless shelter where she believed her mother was living and discovered that Norma was dying.

Mira and her sister traveled to Cleveland, where they shared an extraordinary reconciliation with their mother that none of them had thought possible. At the hospital, Mira discovered a set of keys that opened a storage unit Norma had been keeping for seventeen years. Filled with family photos, childhood toys, and ephemera from Normaâ€™s life, the storage unit brought back a flood of previous memories that Mira had thought were lost to her forever.

Country	USA
Author	Mira Bartok
Binding	Kindle Edition
Edition	Reprint
EISBN	9781439183335
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	Free Press
Manufacturer	Free Press
NumberOfPages	338
PublicationDate	2011-01-11
Publisher	Free Press
ReleaseDate	2011-01-11
Studio	Free Press

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