The Shapeless Unease

A Year of Not Sleeping

‘Easily one of the truest and best books I’ve read about what it’s like to be alive now, in this country’ Max Porter

Sleep. Then you think about it all the time, and the less you have the more you think about it. For Samantha Harvey, extreme sleep deprivation resulted in a raw clarity about life itself.

**Featured on BBC Radio 4's A Good Read**

'A profound meditation on language and loss and time, and on how we construct ourselves through stories. And it's painful. And it's beautiful. And I love it.' NATHAN FLIER

Samantha Harvey's insomnia arrived, seemingly, from nowhere; for a year she has spent her nights chasing sleep that rarely comes. She's tried everything to appease it. Nothing is helping.

What happens when one of the basic human needs goes unmet? For Samantha Harvey, extreme sleep deprivation resulted in a raw clarity about life itself. Original and profound, The Shapeless Unease is a startlingly insightful exploration of memory, writing and influence, death and grief, and the will to survive.

'A delight to read. ineffably rewarding' OBSERVER

'Easily one of the truest and best books I've read about what it's like to be alive now, in this country' MAX PORTER


'How can a book about a sensual deprivation be so sensuous and so full? . it seemed to give my sleep resonance and poetry. What a beautiful book.' TESSA HADLEY

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