Amazon Best Seller
WELCOME TO THE
HOME PAGE OF DIANA
DIRKBY, WRITER
Author of "The Overlife" and "Three
Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies"
For news of my forthcoming novel "Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies," which will be published soon, see the "My Next Novel." page of this website.
Diana Dirkby
My recent novel "The Overlife, A Tale of Schizophrenia," is about characters living with schizophrenia and psychosis, and about mental health, and family and relationships. In my novels, some of the characters live with mental illnesses and brain disorders. They are meant for a general audience. "The Overlife" is about a mother and daughter living with paranoid schizophrenia. Although fictional, the material for my book is based on my personal experiences of the same situation. I live with schizophrenia, as did my mother. The choice of fiction gave me greater scope to include plot elements that I did not experience personally and also to leave out some that I did. It also gave me greater artistic freedom.
Amazon Best Seller
Best Seller in parenting hyperactive children & children with disabilities
My Forthcoming Novel
My new novel: “Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies,” explores the complications of sibling relationships within three families in the fictional town of Vrayboro through the lens of the Three Furies of Greek mythology.
Three Kidnapped
The town of Vrayboro is shaken by the simultaneous disappearances of three of its teenagers: Mary Bell, Fred McCarthy, and Sebastian Ward. The increasing suspense surrounding their whereabouts turns to horror through the notes left by the kidnappers on the doorsteps of the parents of the kidnapped teens.
Three Siblings
The ransom notes demand the involvement of the siblings of the kidnapped teens in confessions that reveal hidden secrets about the relationships in the three affected families. A heroine of the story is a scholar of Greek Mythology, Isabel Morse, who lives with paranoid schizophrenia.
Three Furies
The kidnappers identify with the Three Furies (or Erinyes) from the Greek Myths, who are known to punish wrongdoing within families. The sibling confessions reveal their families' inner secrets, and the question is: "Who is to blame?" The siblings, the kidnapped teens, or the parents?
NEW YORK WEEKLY
Diana Dirkby’s New Thriller Explores the Dark Side.
“The Overlife, A Tale of Schizophrenia,” by Diana Dirkby
The author of this book, Diana Dirkby, is an Australian-born research mathematician who lives with paranoid schizophrenia, a severe brain disorder, as did her mother. The title, "The Overlife," suggests that a diagnosis of schizophrenia can be the beginning of a new, worthwhile life and not simply the death of the hopes and dreams that preceded the diagnosis. This book gives a fictional account of a mother and daughter living with paranoid schizophrenia. We follow the widely disparate effects of this brain disorder on Sarah, the narrator, and her mother, Jodie. We also meet Dalaigh, Jodie's husband and Sarah's father, with his violent resentment at being trapped in a marriage he doesn't want. By age eight, Sarah is Jodie's caregiver and must negotiate her mother's rapidly worsening mental health and her father's white-hot fury. The weight of these adult conflicts on the shoulders of one so young seems impossible to bear.
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Nominated for the 2020 Religious News Association Non-Fiction Book of the Year