Walking to Africa

Portraying a parent's experience of coming to terms with the new and frightening world of mental health care, this narrative explores the myriad foreign ways of diagnosis and treatment. Written from a mother's perspective, the poetic sequence displays the anguish and complexity of dealing with mental illness, describing the events of an ordinary familythe numerous visits to doctors, the treatments that don't work, and the people who suddenly have answers and heartbreaking histories of their own to tell. At the heart of the book lies an outstanding set of poems about electroconvulsive therapy, leading up to a concluding revelation that mental illness may have no solutions, but there are ways of living with it. As stark and powerful as it is healing and illuminating, this is a groundbreaking addition to the field of New Zealand poetry.

Jessica Le Bas tutors in the diploma of creative writing at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. She has been featured in JAAM, North & South, NZ Books, NZ Listener, Poetry NZ, Sport, Takahe, and Trout. She is the author of Incognito, which won the 2008 NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for the best first book of poetry.