“Is there a word for what gets said without language, how we carry the weight of the lives that come before us? This is one of the questions of this profound meditation on love and family. Natasha Williams offers us a portrait of America at a time when everything was in flux, when people searched for new ways to live, and (if they were lucky) ended up simply loving each other.” – Nick Flynn, Author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and Low life THE PARTS OF HIM I KEPT: The Gifts of My Father’s Madness One cold night in April, Natasha’s father drove his car into the frigid water of New York Bay with her two-year-old half-sister in the backseat. Natasha was twenty-one. She was the one to walk him past the column of hungry reporters demanding an explanation. The headline in The New York Post read: Back from a Watery Grave. But Natasha’s experiences growing up with her schizophrenic father in the gritty New York City of the 1970s are not so easily captured in a single headline. How could she possibly convey the power of her father’s love in the face of this tragedy? The Parts of Him I Kept is an intimate account of a daughter’s coming of age in the face of her father’s schizophrenic unraveling. Williams investigates the limits of our medical and cultural understanding of schizophrenia while chronicling the shared burden and benefits of caring for a mentally ill family member. In the tradition of Michael Greenberg’s Hurry Down Sunshine and Robert Kolker’s Hidden Valley Road, The Parts of Him I Kept asks us to consider the ways mental illness is as much a social issue as a biological condition. In the midst of today’s unprecedented mental health crisis, with 1 in 20 adults suffering severe mental illness, an estimated 5.86% of adults in the United States, or nearly 60 million people, have experienced a severe mental illness. 1 in 6 young adults have experienced a mental health disorder. An even larger number of mental health adjacent readers: family members, therapists, social workers and mental health educators who will resonate with the ways The Parts of Him I Kept humanizes living with mental illness and illuminates how families find hope, and even thrive, in the face of the extraordinary challenge of mental illness. Readers for The Parts of Him I Kept Those looking for scientific and philosophical connections to mental illness. Those asking vitally important questions surrounding schizophrenia and mental healthcare in America. Readers of all ages interested in an intergenerational family story about the legacy of mental illness and its impact on the family. People interested in first-hand accounts of the culturally explosive beatnik culture in NYC. Music lovers interested in jazz and classical music elements and philosophy. Adult children navigating estranged relationships with their parents will find insight and healing in the central mother-daughter relationship. Parent’s who relate to the challenges of protecting children from forces that can tear families apart. Domestic abuse survivors will relate to the struggles of the mother’s relationships. Readers caring for aging parents, especially those facing mental health challenges, will find solace in the shared struggles of seeking care for a parent with schizophrenia. About the Author: This is Natasha Williams debut book. She has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and attended the Bread Loaf School of English and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Excerpts and essays have been published in the Bread Loaf Journal, Change Seven, LIT, Memoir Magazine, Onion River Review, Writers Read, Post Road, and South Dakota Review. 4501 N. CHARLES ST. • BALTIMORE, MD 21210 • WWW.APPRENTICEHOUSE.COM | 
