Inferno

A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness

Inferno is the riveting memoir of a young mother who is separated from her newborn son and husband when she's involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward in New Jersey after a harrowing bout of postpartum psychosis.

This program is read by the author.

When Catherine Cho and her husband set off from London to introduce their newborn son to family scattered across the United States, she could not have imagined what lay in store. Before the trip’s end, she develops psychosis, a complete break from reality, which causes her to lose all sense of time and place, including what is real and not real. In desperation, her husband admits her to a nearby psychiatric hospital, where she begins the hard work of rebuilding her identity.

In this unwaveringly honest, insightful, and often shocking memoir Catherine reconstructs her sense of self, starting with her childhood as the daughter of Korean immigrants, moving through a traumatic past relationship, and on to the early years of her courtship with and marriage to her husband, James. She masterfully interweaves these parts of her past with a vivid, immediate recounting of the days she spent in the ward.

The result is a powerful exploration of psychosis and motherhood, at once intensely personal, yet holding within it a universal experience – of how we love, live and understand ourselves in relation to each other.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

Just listened a second time, so good

I think this book is outstanding and the writing feels even more powerful because the author is the narrator, too.

Her honesty about her story. At least it felt that way.

Her honesty Sometimes I got confused as to what was her present and past. Would love to hear an update on where she is today.

Harrowing and immersive

I can see how the narrator’s voice might make it hard for some listeners to stay with it, but I actually liked it — the lack of affect helped to put me in her perspective.. When she described her psychosis from her POV I felt I could actually see things her way and it made it even more harrowing. Her story mirrors that of some of my loved ones with bipolar disorder. It is at times heartbreaking and touching — her husband and family truly loves her. I’m glad it ends with her recovery. Beautifully written memoir.

Great story-which I had read the book.

I thought the story was very well written, and told such a good story of something so difficult that so many women struggle with. I wish though that I had read it as a book, instead of listened to it.The Author’s
Voice was flat, the entire story. For such an emotional topic, especially one she herself lived through, think it would have been better, even
More realistic, if there was more intonation and emotion shared within the words.

recommend

I read this with my book club. I thought this was really good, moving, and inspiring. It rang so authentic. I felt so much empathy for the author and her husband, and I felt awe in her courage to tell her story in the way she did. It is a story of extreme struggle and of resilience and love. Beautifully done and read, in my opinion.