By the bestselling authors of The Glass House, Anne Buist & Graeme Simsion, the second novel in the groundbreaking Menzies Mental Health seriesTrainee psychiatrist
Doctor Hannah Wright has only just gotten her head above water in the acute psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital when she's thrown into the deep end of the outpatient clinic. Keen to develop her skills in talking therapies, she finds herself up against a boss who's convinced medication is the answer and a senior colleague with a score to settle.
Hannah's fellow first-years face problems of their own: on-and-off flame
Alex is being bullied,
Ndidi's marriage is in trouble,
Jon feels isolated and
Carey is concerned their autism will be a career barrier.
While Hannah comes under pressure to seek therapy herself to confront a traumatic past, her patients' health issues range from OCD to ice addiction, childhood abuse to the mental impact of ageing, and from bad parenting to bad genes. They all come to The Oasis.
Written with great humanity and humour, Australian psychiatrist Anne Buist and internationally bestselling author Graeme Simsion (The Rosie Project) welcome us into the world of mental health with compassion and insight.
About the Author
Professor Anne Buist is chair of Women's Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and the architect of the national screening program for perinatal depression. She began writing at eight but medicine intervened until 2015 when she wrote
Medea's Curse, the first of five psychological crime novels. The internationally bestselling
Two Steps Forward, co-authored with her husband, Graeme Simsion, was optioned to Fox Searchlight / Disney, along with its sequel,
Two Steps Onward. She is co-author of the
Menzies Mental Health series with Graeme.
Industry Reviews
'A masterfully told, character-driven novel that will have you laughing and crying in equal measures' - THE AUSTRALIAN
'A deeply empathetic, humanising portrait of a mental health facility, and the souls that pass through it' - THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY
'Stunning . . . So timely' - DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Absorbing' - INSTYLE AUSTRALIA
'A darn good read' - LIVING ARTS CANBERRA
'Brings alive the frontline of mental health care' - PROFESSOR PATRICK MCGORRY AO, AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR 2010
'Overflows with compassion, insight and humour' - MEREDITH JAFFE
'Gripping, rich and insightful' - ARIANE BEESTON, author of Because I'm Not Myself, You See
'Anne Buist skilfully writes from her own experiences and co-author Graeme Simsion adds his inimitable Rosie Project style. An honest, sensitive look into mental health care in Australia' - PROFESSOR JAYASHRI KULKARNI AM, Psychiatrist, Monash University