UnSound

The most transformative memoir you will read this year - a radical, fiercely compassionate journey to reclaim the narrative around mental health. UnSound is an astoundingly brave, deeply moving memoir of life as a voice hearer and one woman’s battle to reshape how we understand the human mind. Heartbreaking, raw, and fiercely compassionate, it will challenge everything you thought you knew about hearing voices. “Hearing voices is still treated as the ultimate, terrifying ‘gold-standard for crazy.’ But what if the voices were never the problem at all?” Alison Smith was eighteen years old when the noises began. After enduring decades of aggressive psychiatric treatments that never quite worked, Alison set out to understand her own mind. Astonishingly, voice hearing affects up to ten percent of the population, making it just as common as being left-handed. So why are millions forced into shame? Why are some voice hearers revered as visionaries, while others are stripped of their autonomy? Written by award-winning author Alison Smith, UnSound is a rare, unprecedented view from the inside of psychiatric survival. Blending vivid memoir with a journey to find a hidden community, this is an unforgettable story about loss, resilience, and the radical courage it takes to reclaim your own narrative.