Four Men.
Manic Highs. Crushing Lows.
Fifteen years of loving through madness at the mercy of undiagnosed Bipolar I Disorder.
In Tainted Love: A Bipolar Memoir, Louise endures the consequences of four turbulent romantic relationships. An impulse she follows upon returning home after college graduation sets in motion the compounding chaos and allure of each love story—igniting in seduction and collapsing in disillusionment.
Enter Marco, a married restaurant owner with ties to the Italian Mafia. She never once says no. On the heels of his cancer diagnosis, desperate to attach, she says “I do” to Jim, though he loved beer, blow, and Mary Jane more. Entangled in his boyish baby blues, Luke promises her everything she ever wanted, including baby Lily. And finally, she hurls herself 1,400 miles for Patrick, the undeniable villain of her story.
Unflinchingly honest, Tainted Love confronts the brutal complexities of the human mind. In the end, the noise fades, the mask lifts, and something radical is discovered: untainted love.
A soul-stirring, emotionally arresting coming-of-age memoir where mental illness and identity collide with failed love and single motherhood, Tainted Love will resonate with book clubs and readers of Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, We Are the Luckiest by Laura McKowen, and Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams.
As the conversation around mental health grows increasingly urgent, affecting 7 million Americans and 46 million worldwide with bipolar disorder, numbers that only reflect those formally diagnosed. Tainted Love is making a profound impact, offering readers even a semblance of relief in their daily battles.
