March Book Club: Hospital by Sanya Rushdi (S4E2)

A daring literary account of a young woman’s experience of psychosis by Bengali-Australian writer Sanya Rushdi.

This March, our book club discussion features Hospital, which explores the experience of psychosis and subsequent hospitalisation, drawn from the author’s real-life experience. We unpack the limitations of the medical model approach towards treatment of mental health issues, shared decision-making, and the importance of empowerment and identity in recovery.

Additional content notes for this episode: involuntary hospitalisation, stigma of psychosis, harmful psychiatric treatments, coerced medication prescribing

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Detailed Show Notes

About the Book

In Melbourne a one-time research student with interests in philosophy and psychology is diagnosed with her third episode of psychosis. As she is moved from her family home to a community house and then to hospital, she questions the diagnosis of her sanity or insanity, as determined and defined by a medical model which seems less than convincing to her. Indeed questioning seems to be at the heart of her psychosis, in her over-active interpretations of signs and gestures, thoughts and emotions – and one understands these to be an expression of her intelligence, even if they seem illusory. She tells her story in a calm, rational voice, with an acute sense of detail and an objective air, as she wonders when the next psychotic episode will materialise, or if it hasn’t arrived already.

Based on real-life events, translated from Bengali by the award-winning Indian translator Arunava Sinha, Hospital is an extraordinary novel that portrays the experience of psychosis and its treatments in an unflinching and understated way, while struggling more broadly with the definition of sanity in our society.

About the author

Sanya Rushdi was born in Bangladesh and studied the biological sciences and psychology at Monash University, the University of Sydney and Deakin University. Her first novel Hospital was shortlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize and is longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Our Thoughts

We both agreed that Hospital is an important book to have as part of the Australian literary landscape, given its portrayal of psychosis – something that is still heavily stigmatised, and rarely described in mainstream media through a lived experience lens – and the intersection between mental health and culture. However, its writing style and the narrator’s limited description of time and place contributed to our difficulties with the book; we struggled to connect emotionally to the story and keep engaged. While limited insight can be a feature of a psychotic episode, it means that the story was at times difficult to follow due to a lack of contextual information or unclear time jumps. However, we expect that readers learn some important messages from the book, about both what psychosis looks like and the systematic issues faced when trying to access appropriate mental health treatment.

Book Club Discussion Questions

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• Hospital focuses on an individual’s experience of psychosis. Was there anything about Hospital’s portrayal of this that you found particularly interesting or insightful, or that resonated with you? 
• Have you read other books that feature a character experiencing psychosis, or characters interacting with mental health treatment systems (e.g. hospital admission, psychiatric or psychological therapy)?   
• We struggled with the sparse writing style; though this was likely intentional, it often left us confused and impacted our emotional connection to the story. How was your reading experience overall? 
• Have you read any other books that have been translated from their original language? Why do you think translated books are quite rare, at least in Australia?
• In the episode, we explain how we both have different rating scales – for example, 3 stars means different things to each of us. What do different book ratings mean to you?

Resources

• Understanding Psychosis
• Myths and Facts About Schizophrenia
• Australian Early Psychosis Collaborative Consortium (AEPCC’s) Lived Experience Network (LEN
• One Door Mental Health (formerly the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW)
• National Stigma Report Card (SANE x University of Melbourne)

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