THE ECLIPSE: A MEMOIR OF SUICIDE

Novelist Antonella Gambotto publishes "The Eclipse", her astonishing memoir of suicide.

Novelist Antonella Gambotto was awoken at seven one Saturday morning by a telephone call. She could never have anticipated the subsequent devastation.    

"The Eclipse: A Memoir of Suicide" is an extraordinary account of one woman's experience of love and loss. Gambotto's insight and compassion are startling; her ability to make sense of suicide, revolutionary.

Does any man have the right to dispose of his own life? This is, she writes, the ultimate debate of moral entitlement. She explains the premise of suicide and how it pivots on a fatal logical flaw. Presenting an eloquent case against our understanding of depression and bereavement, she poses a profound question: If death is a process and not a state, how does that change the experience of grief? She writes:

"In the last forty-five years, global suicide rates have increased by 60% ... Prisons overflow with men, and juvenile detention centers teem with boys; remedial readers are, in 90% of cases, male, as are those diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, substance abusers, and the violent. Rates of injury are three times as high for males. The lives of men are eroded by frustration inhibition perversion. A white collar drug addict remarked in an interview: 'My work is so boring that its really hard to do it if youre not hung-over in some way. My friend tried to not do drugs for a while and he was, like, 'This is a nightmare! I have to sleep eight hours a day! Im tired all the time! I wake up and it takes me three hours to get up, and then Im tired in the afternoon.' Men are dying of loneliness, and no-one knows."
    
Arguably the most important memoir ever written about loss, "The Eclipse" hypnotizes the reader from the outset. Gambotto's life has been saturated by death. The first boy who proposed to her shot himself in the head at the age of sixteen. Michael VerMeulen, her great love and the legendary American editor of British GQ, overdosed on cocaine at the age of 38. And then her baby brother, gone.

Grief is, she writes, something like coals to be walked upon.

Passionate and magnificently written, "The Eclipse" should be given to anyone whose heart has been torn out by loss, and to those who want to love without fear.

THE AUTHOR

Antonella has worked for the Australian, Cosmopolitan, Elle, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, the Independent on Sunday Review, Mode, the NME, Playboy, etc. Her topics range from cardiothoracic surgery to literature. Her celebrated interview subjects include Jean Alesi, Martin Amis, Tori Amos, Sandra Bernhard, Flavio Briatore, Nick Cave, Deepak Chopra, Edward de Bono, Gerard Depardieu, Ben Elton, Jerry Hall, Rachel Hunter, Charlton Heston, HRH Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, Erica Jong, Elle Macpherson, and Naomi Wolf.

She has appeared onstage with PD James, Paulo Coelho, and Raimond Gaita, debated with Patrick Gale, lectured on writing, published four books, and has considerable television experience. Her books are part of courses at major Australian universities.

Antonella is currently working on six one-hour television specials with John Gregory of Imagination Entertainment.

"The Eclipse" is exclusively available through www.brokenanklebooks.com or by sending an international money order for AUD37.50 (postage and handling included) to: Broken Ankle Books, PO Box 1486, Byron Bay 2481, New South Wales, Australia.