Cafe Babanussa

February 15, 2016
In Hill's debut novel, to live with a mental illness is to eat ravenously, love deeply, and dress beautifully, all while tiptoeing on the edge of a canyon that can swallow the sufferer at any moment. Ruby Edwards surprises her family by announcing that she is leaving their Toronto home to start a life in Berlin. There she learns more about her identity as a black woman, falls in love with a local named Werner, and assembles a group of close friends. But her new life is disrupted, first when her physical health begins to fail, and then when voices and delusions begin to haunt her. Her mental health deteriorates quickly and she is institutionalized. This patternâbuild up a life, fall in love, fall apart, find healingâbecomes the framework for Ruby's life. Hill's posthumously published novel is bookended by a foreword by her brother, author Lawrence Hill, and her own essay about her lifelong battle with mental illness. These artifacts tell a tale of a life well lived in the moments between bouts. There are flaws in the writing, but Hill's book will speak deeply to anyone who has lived with a similar mental illness or loved someone who has.