Postpartum depression affects millions of new mothers every year and- like most of its victims- Elif Shafak never expected to be one of them.

But after the birth of her first child in 2006 the internationally bestselling Turkish author remembers how "for the first time my adult life ... words wouldnt speak to me".

As her despair finally eased Shafak sought to resuscitate her writing life by chronicling her own experiences.

In her intimate memoir she reveals how she struggled to overcome her depression and how literature provided the salvation she so desperately needed.