The latest addition to my website is Daniele Mencarelli‘s Tutto chiede salvezza (Everything Calls For Salvation). This is an autobiographical novel about seven days Mencarelli spent in a mental institution in 1994.He was bipolar and had a breakdown, smashing his house up and causing his father to collapse. We follow his seven days and that of the other five patients in his ward. The novel takes the general view that the staff – nurses and doctors – are not much help and that the patients are much better off helping one another. We learn of his background and that of the others, some of whom have been institutionalised several times before. Daniele struggles with one key concept – he seeks salvation, for himself and others. In his seven days, he does calm down, thanks more to his fellow patients than to the staff or his family and, presumably, as he is writing this book, does more or less get cured. The others may not have been so lucky.