Mindy Lewis's memoir explores the inner life of an adolescent girl, in contrast with excerpts from hospital records. A vivid first person portrayal of life inside a psychiatric hospital and the thirty years afterward, into the aftermath of long-term hospitalization and a young woman's struggle to define herself on her own terms, her story also recalls an era in psychiatry. Life Inside was named an Elle magazine “Must Read” and a 2003 Book of the Year by the American Journal of Nursing. "Complex, chilling, luminous: not one false step." -Kirkus Reviews

Atria Books, 2002; Washington Square Press Paperback, 2003; 358 pgs.