Blue Genes

A compassionate but clear-eyed view of his family history. . . . With candor and courage Lukas writes that even now . . . he still has more questions than answers. --Washington Post Lukas movingly describes what it was like to grow up the child of a suicide. . . . His story will resonate with readers who have lost friends or family members. --USA Today Fascinating. --Harper's Poignant. --New York Observer A harrowing tale, told with some restraint and sorrow. --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette This is a book that makes you feel you should call the author and ask him to reassure you that he is O.K. . . . [Lukas] has held on to life and to the story of a lifetime. --The New York Times Book Review A harrowing tale, told with some restraint and sorrow. . . . [Lukas] coped for better or worse with the sense of abandonment all his life, including the disappearance of his brilliant older brother, lost to demons of his own. --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Christopher Lukas' mother killed herself when he was 6. His brother, journalist J. Anthony Lukas, committed suicide 56 years later--but only after the author's grandmother, aunt, and uncle took their lives as well. . . . For fans of William Styron's Darkness Visible. --Entertainment Weekly This gentle story is a reminder that stopping such family legacies requires candor and courage. . . . [Suicide] is an accusation of all we did not do and a loss of all that was there. Lukas attempts to remedy both in this book, by bringing his family story into the light. --Portland Oregonian In his searingly candid memoir, [Lukas] provides an anatomy of melancholy, examining the mysteries of bipolar disorder, acknowledging a lifelong fight with his own demons, and grieving over those who could not emerge from the dark night of the soul. . . . Blue Genes is more than an apt title; for those who are no strangers to the heritage of sadness, it's an invaluable survivor's manual. --Stefan Kanfer, City Journal