Is love real if the beloved isn’t? Girl, Interrupted meets Rebecca in this taut tale of love and madness
When Tia meets Pacifique, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime love. They spend five wild days and nights together, and then Tia wakes up in an ambulance with a collarbone broken in a bike accident — and no trace of Pacifique. Unable to convince anyone that Pacifique exists, Tia winds up in a psychiatric ward, forced to face the possibility that this perfect lover may be a figment of her imagination. While there, Tia meets Andrew, a contemplative man with schizophrenia, who falls in love with Tia. He, too, tells her to forget Pacifique. Who to believe? The medical establishment and her fellow patients? Or her frail human memory? And if Pacifique truly is a figment, is life in the “real world” with Andrew enough?
"In concise and vibrant prose, Sarah L. Taggart illuminates the dark corners of delusion (or is it delusion?) and a mental-health system that consigns people to endless limbo. Lucid and destabilizing, graceful and raw, this novel asks: is losing one’s sanity so different from falling in love?" – Deborah Willis, author of The Dark and Other Love Stories
"Pacifique turns the psychological thriller on its head, allowing madness to be a meaningful lens through which to see the world instead of a cheap plot twist. Taggart has created a stunning, smart and revolutionary novel here - one that forces its readers to see clearly what so often remains hidden. This book means so much to me. One of the best I've read in years." – Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out On The Ground
Authors
- Pages
- 176
- Published in
- Canada
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Half Title Page 3
- Title Page 5
- Copyright Page 6
- Dedication 7
- Prologue 9
- Part 1 13
- Chapter 1 15
- Chapter 2 29
- Chapter 3 34
- Chapter 4 39
- Chapter 5 43
- Chapter 6 49
- Chapter 7 51
- Chapter 8 58
- Chapter 9 66
- Chapter 10 72
- Chapter 11 78
- Chapter 12 80
- Chapter 13 85
- Chapter 14 94
- Chapter 15 97
- Chapter 16 99
- Chapter 17 112
- Chapter 18 120
- Chapter 19 126
- Part 2 133
- Chapter 20 135
- Chapter 21 138
- Chapter 22 141
- Chapter 23 148
- Chapter 24 151
- Chapter 25 159
- Chapter 26 163
- Chapter 27 171
- Chapter 28 176
- Chapter 29 181
- Chapter 30 190
- Chapter 31 202
- Chapter 32 207
- Chapter 33 209
- Chapter 34 212
- Epilogue 215
- Acknowledgements 221
- About the Author 225