Joseph Pirrello was on his way to becoming a classical virtuoso on the piano when he experienced his first psychotic episode at the age of eighteen. Over the next decade and a half, he found himself struggling to maintain a fa ade of normalcy, while inside he slowly unravelled.
From his stint in an all-Italian wedding band to a year spent in Tuscany, where he lived a bohemian life surrounded by artists and musicians, to a jazz-soaked semester as a music student in Montreal, Joseph takes the reader along on his sometimes humorous, heart-rending journey to find success as a musician while dealing with his yet-undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
With unflinching honesty and insight, Joseph's memoir recounts what it's like to live with a mental illness. Once officially diagnosed, Joseph finds support in the Toronto-based mental health rehabilitation centre, Reconnect, where he sets out to put back the pieces of his life--and makes a surprising self-discovery that takes his life in a new direction.
Filled with hope, this book attempts to find a silver lining in what is a devastating diagnosis, without diminishing the seemingly insurmountable challenges that mental illness brings. It is also a testament to the importance of friendship and acceptance without judgement.