How Not to Kill Yourself

'How Not to Kill Yourself is a remarkable book – self-flaying in its honesty, harrowing in its dark narrative turns, clear in its philosophising, and ultimately consoling in its message of hope. Treating sometimes dangerous material with care, Clancy Martin's book is illuminating, riveting, and – for those of us who are suffering, or know people who are – potentially life-savingly helpful.'

'The most honest, complicit, searing, and discomfiting book I’ve ever read about suicide (and I’ve read quite a few—out of purely scholarly interest, of course). All great narratives pose a battle between the force of life and the force of death; How Not To Kill Yourself does this as brilliantly and powerfully as any book I have encountered in quite some time. Thrilling and useful.'

'In this unusually brave book, Clancy Martin dissects the anatomy of his own suicide attempts and, deploying other people’s stories and a wide range of literary sources, gives voice to the large questions that suicide raises: why some people want to live and others do not; why some fluctuate between the poles; why he is grateful to have survived his attempts but still hears the siren call of self-annihilation.  He writes confidently, philosophically, dramatically, and with great clarity about a life that has been both wondrous and agonising.'

'Suicide is impossibly difficult to understand but Clancy Martin gives first-person insight into why some choose to kill themselves; importantly, he also gives witness to the kind of hard work it takes for a suicidal person to opt for life.'

'Clancy Martin reminds us that the most existential questions around suicide—what drives a person to want to die and what has kept them alive—are not answered by the act itself but by people like him, who have long suffered and are authentically seeking what it means to go on living. He fearlessly and relentlessly asks these questions of himself and is thankfully here today to offer his many valuable lessons, both for those who are struggling with thoughts of suicide and those who work to help them.'

'Clancy Martin has written an extraordinary, thoughtful book that combines his heartbreaking experience with clear-eyed suggestions. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. Required—and, yes, somehow optimistic reading--for anyone interested in this enormous mental health problem.'

‘Bleak, funny, unforgiving… It’s written extremely finely, with wit and enviable self-control. A genuinely fresh, disconcerting voice.’

‘Dirty, greatly original, and very hard to stop reading.’

'A disturbing and transfixing dissection of suicide and its circumstances.'