New York Times Bestseller, Mira Bartok to do Booksigning on November 3

“Even now, when the phone rings late at night, I think it’s her.  I stumble out of bed ready for the worst.  The last time my mother called was in 1990.  I was thirty-one and living in Chicago.  She said if I didn’t come home right away she’d kill herself.” -The Memory Palace

Author Mira Bartók gives readers a front seat view of her mother’s decent into schizophrenia, effectively giving voice to the families and children who live with the effects of family who are mentally ill.  Subjected to a hellish childhood, including being subjected to their mother’s intense paranoia, physical abuse, neglect, where no one interceded, Mira and her sister, Rachel, endured this and more, as their mother’s mental health became progressively worse.

In this validating memoir, Mira shares her experience, strength and resilience throughout her life, sharing her journey.  Through her own eloquent words she shares an intimate account of her own struggle, adaptation and survival. She gives hope to all who are still struggling with the effects of mental illness within our own families, and to help them reconcile and heal…and gives insight to everyone else.

When asked what prompted her to write 'The Memory Palace”, Mira says:

“I was writing a lot of short fiction, essays, and poetry at the time, but mostly lyric essays.  But with everything I wrote — even if it was a nature essay about beavers — my mother would sneak inside the text in one way or another. I eventually felt like I needed to confront our story — hers and mine — before I could go on and write other things that were less autobiographical. And the deeper, perhaps more unconscious reason, was that I thought maybe if I faced the most difficult relationship in my life it might help me to figure out whether or not I should see her again, and if so, how. I never anticipated what actually happened, that is, I did find her toward the end of her life and I got to be with her in the hospital when she was dying. That transformational experience gave me the end of my story and was the greatest gift of my life.”

Mira describes the process as the “Push-Me-Pull-You creature in Dr. Doolittle.”  She said, “Sometimes it poured out, other times it was like pulling teeth. In the words of my friend, the great children's book author Jane Yolen, "If you want to write, you need to do this: BIC, HOP—Butt in chair, heart on page." And that's what I did, as much as I could.”

When asked if she ever thought she’d help so many people when you wrote this, Mira humbly responded:

“No, I didn't. I had a strong feeling it would get published but I never in a million years expected so many people to be reading it, writing me thank you letters, coming up to me after readings with tears in their eyes. The biggest surprise of all though is that my mom's shelter in Cleveland has been rebuilt and is now named in her honor: The Norma Herr Women's Center. My mom helped a lot of people at the shelter in her small quiet, humble way and her legacy now lives on. I feel, in some odd way, that we collaborated with this book and with the rebuilding of the shelter, even though both things were finished after she died. Anyway, I'm happy my book is bringing solace to so many people. I'm grateful for that gift.”

Mira Bartok will be doing a reading  from “The Memory Palace” and book signing  November 3 at 7 p.m., at  The Chester County Books and Music Company: 975 Paoli Pike, West Chester, PA.