Out of the Blue: A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness

What happens when the place you've loved working at for twenty years asks for a divorce and breaks your heart?

"Tapping into her journalistic rigour, [Wong] gives a complete profile of the disease and its history." — Now Magazine

"Jan Wong is a wonderful writer and as she tells her own story, she speaks for me and for many. Some say depression is a gift. Well, it's not. But this book is."  — Shelagh Rogers

Self-published in 2012 because publishers were afraid of the backlash from the author's criticism of the biggest newspaper in Canada, Jan Wong's formidable memoir made the Globe and Mail's own bestseller list and exposed a much needed look at depression in the workplace. Now it's back by popular demand.

For twenty years Jan Wong had been one of the Globe and Mail's best-known reporters. Edward Greenspon, her then editor-in-chief, described Wong's writing as "intrusive, edgy, insightful, significant — and funny. Everything Jan touches becomes memorable."

Then one day her world came crashing down. A story she wrote sparked a national firestorm, including death threats, a unanimous denunciation by Parliament, and a rebuke by her own newspaper. For the first time in her professional life, Wong fell into a clinical depression. She resisted the diagnosis, refusing to believe she had a mental illness, as did her employer and her insurer. Out of the Blue is the harrowing and sometimes surreal story of her struggle and her eventual emergence — out of the blue.

Jan Wong is the author of five national bestsellers. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her work and is now a professor of journalism at St. Thomas University. Her most recent books is Apron Strings: Navigating Food and Family in France, Italy, and China.