Pulling no punches in its 150 pages, Pharmakon is the story of an explosion, of the moment depression blew up the life the author thought she knew and settled in her body. But Pharmakon isn’t a sad book; it is testimony, written with humour and intimacy by one of Spain’s most singular voices, one that deftly combines wit, eccentricity, and warmth. Far from shrinking from taboos, Sánchez grabs hold of her depression and dredges it for the whys and hows, excavating her memory, behaviour, and craters of the mind: here there is infancy and the family home, youth at school in Mallorca and in the fields of Castile; psychiatrists who save and pills that bring her back to life; there are dreams, nightmares, and desires. And books, lots of books—some that serve to escape and others to understand what was happening in her head—because for Sánchez, literature is comfort, quest, and salvation. Pharmakon is an insight, from one of Spain’s most singular voices, into the experience of depression and recovery.
