Five top books written by authors in the grip of mental illness

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well. One of Somers's five top titles by writers who managed to write enduring books even though they were in the grip of mental illness, as shared at B&N Reads:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig

Clinically depressed and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at a young age, Pirsig had several mental breakdowns over the course of his life and was in treatment almost continuously. Whether or not this compromises the value of his Metaphysics of Quality laid out and explored in seminal book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is up to the reader.

Read about another entry on the list.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance appears on the Telegraph's critics' list of the fifty best cult books, Michael Palin's six best books list, John Mullan's list of ten of the best motorbikes in literature, and Sebastian Beaumont's top ten list of books about psychological journeys.

--Marshal Zeringue