Daniel Keyes: The Minds of Billy Milligan

Literature has long attempted to penetrate the human mind. But how can you understand someone in whom 24 personalities coexist? And how can you figure out who is in charge among this multitude of consciousnesses? Who are you talking to at any given moment? Only a master of psychological prose is capable of untangling such a labyrinth of the mind and helping Billy Milligan unify all his personalities into one, to become himself. But is that even possible?
Daniel Keyes's biographical novel is an authentic account of the life of the first person in the US to be acquitted due to a diagnosis of "multiple personality disorder." An investigation into the life of one of the most famous people in the history of psychiatry, despite the severity of his crimes, ultimately evoked understanding and empathy both among those who knew Billy personally and those who only read about him in newspapers.
The book is gripping from the very first pages and candidly shows the terrible consequences an indifferent and imperfect society can suffer by allowing itself to ignore the problem of abuse.
Billy wakes up to find himself in a prison cell. He is told that he is accused of rape and robbery. Billy is shocked: he didn't do any of those things! The last thing he remembers is wanting to jump off the roof of his school building. He is told that seven years have passed since then. Billy is terrified: a piece of his life has been stolen again! They ask him: what does it mean that a "piece of life was stolen"? And why "again"? Does this mean it hasn't happened to him for the first time? But Billy cannot answer, because Billy has gone...

Author: Daniel Keyes  

Translator: Yulia Fedorova

Pages: 512 (offset). Hardcover

Dimensions: 210x135x30 mm

Series: Vivid Pages