Therapeutic Fiction on Prescription — A Haitian Bibliotherapy Collection on Love, Loss and Grief

Growing up in Kenya, East Africa in the 1980s, was like growing up in a caged paradise — beautiful outdoor landscapes and nature visits — in a backdrop of staggering crime levels and targeted attacks on the Asian community, which meant that there wasn’t always lots to do for budding teenagers. I often spent hours on end at the community library totally absorbed in fiction — and I’d often use literature as the antidote to teenage angst. I lived in an Orthodox Jain community and mental health and well-being were unheard of. We didn’t talk about many of the issues that young children and teenagers face every day, such as learning how our bodies work, bullying, navigating teenage friendships. Instead, books became the surrogate anchors for me. From Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, to Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High to more classical literature such as George Elliot’s Mill on the Floss and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, these books helped me understand life and more importantly, they understood me — mirrored my feelings, my pain when relationships or friendships didn’t go to plan, or when I was bullied at school or when I struggled with shame. These were my saviours and unconsciously, literature became a go-to resource whenever I felt low, confused or craved reassurance.