Mayhem cover art

Mayhem

A Memoir

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Mayhem

By: Sigrid Rausing
Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Mayhem by Sigrid Rausing, read by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

A searingly powerful memoir about the impact of addiction on a family

In the summer of 2012 a woman named Eva was found dead in the London townhouse she shared with her husband, Hans K. Rausing. The couple had struggled with drug addiction for years, often under the glare of tabloid headlines. Now, writing with singular clarity and restraint the editor and publisher Sigrid Rausing, tries to make sense of what happened to her brother and his wife.

In Mayhem, she asks the difficult questions those close to the world of addiction must face. 'Who can help the addict, consumed by a shaming hunger, a need beyond control? There is no medicine: the drugs are the medicine. And who can help their families, so implicated in the self-destruction of the addict? Who can help when the very notion of 'help' becomes synonymous with an exercise of power; a familial police state; an end to freedom, in the addict's mind?'

 Addiction & Recovery Mental Health Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Memoir Substance abuse Health Marriage Medicine

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Critic reviews

Fierce, lyrical, and lucid memoir

(Siri Hustvedt)
A profoundly articulate and harrowing memoir of a family grappling with addiction... I was impressed and moved (A. M. Homes)
A short, intense and moving memoir... a poignant and at times harrowing account that testifies to the resilience of the human spirit
Powerful and spare... her elisions and prevarications have a striking effect
Such a unique and haunting story to tell
What gives this book its astonishing power is not the guilt, but the intelligence and literary skill. Beautifully structured... Rausing sets the scene with painterly delicacy and then steps back to analyse the implications of what she has revealed
A deeply felt memorial to a lost brother...a finely written memoir
Riveting, clear-sighted and exceptionally articulate...heartbreaking...her literary and psychoanalytic fluency gives the book an impact that feels arrestingly honest
Touched by its bravery, sincerity and the frequent beauty of the writing
In this slim, stoic memoir... Rausing thoughtfully, painstakingly, works a deep groove into the stubborn surface of certain bedevilling questions: "How do you write about addiction?"... I nodded and sometimes cried. I wanted to invite the author over for tea
All stars
Most relevant
I loved that this was not a linear timeline, worth a read for sure, addiction affects the lives of all the family.

An interesting take on addiction

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The author clearly knows how to write but she also writes in a way that makes difficult for a reader to emotionaly connect with the story. The book is more a collection of her thoughts than an involving story. Also, the summary of the book is somehow misleading as it is more the story of the author than of her addicted brother. Great narrator though !

Boring

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I didn't know anything about the story. I chose it because it is read by Maggie Gyllenhaal and she reads in a mesmerising lilt that I find very soothing yet compelling (I have also listened to her read The Bell Jar and also Anna Karenina). The memoir was fascinating, a sensitive and raw family insider account of a story ravaged by the media, like so many others. I've since been prompted to read more about the family online and am very glad I listened to this memoir first.

Fascinating and beautifully read

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A revealing insight into the experiences of families struggling with addiction. Beautifully written and beautifully read by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Very poignant and beautifully read

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Maggie Gyllenhaal superbly narrates this haunting and tragic story that leaves its mark on the listener

Haunting

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