Preorder Jolt: My Electric Journey out of Darkness (Scribner, Nov. 10 2026)
ONE OF LITHUB’S MOST-ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2026
“BEAUTIFUL, RAW, AND DEEPLY FELT, Jolt is a riveting account of depression, memory, and the last resort of ECT, handled here with uncommon elegance. Ted Scheinman has given us a gift with this slyly gorgeous meditation on the sacrifices necessary to being well—one that embraces the mystery of what makes us human.”
—Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire
“I WAS DEEPLY MOVED by this brilliant book. Jolt isn’t just a rich and fulfilling report on the brain and the ways it can sometimes betray us, but a beautiful and heart-wrenching portrait of family, parentage, and what it is to crawl out from beneath the weight of expectation and attempt to remake yourself.”
–Hanif Abdurraqib, National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author
“BRILLIANT. Like some cockeyed modern version of Dante’s Virgil, Ted Scheinman takes the reader on a vivid journey through his descent into a depressive inferno and his ascent back out. Only Scheinman’s a lot funnier—imagine Virgil with the self-lacerating wit of Carrie Fisher or Augusten Burroughs.”
—Scott Stossel, National Editor of The Atlantic and bestselling author of My Age of Anxiety
“A BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN CHRONICLE. In this generous and deeply compelling memoir, Scheinman probes his family history with compassion and insight—without a whiff of victimhood. His most impressive artistic feat is that he has written a book about devastating depression that is warm, hopeful, and threaded with humor.”
—Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life