Nothing: A Portrait of Insomnia

The acclaimed author of Scorch Atlas offers a deeply candid and wildly original look at insomnia in this "superbly lyrical" memoir (Paste Magazine).

Invoking scientific data, historical anecdote, Internet obsession, and figures as diverse as Andy Warhol, Gilles Deleuze, John Cage, Anton LaVey, Jorge Luis Borges, Brian Eno, and Stephen King, Butler traces the tension between sleeping and conscious life. And he reaches deep into his own experience—from disturbing waking dreams, to his father's struggles with dementia, to his own epic 129-hour bout of insomnia—to reveal the effect of sleeplessness on his imaginative landscape.

The result is an exhilarating exploration of dream and awareness, desperation and relief, consciousness and conscience—a fascinating maze-map of the borders between sleep and the waking world by one of today's most talked-about writers.

© 2011 Harper Perennial (Ebook): 9780062101570

Release date

Ebook: 11 October 2011