The Noonday Demon's contribution to our understanding not only of mental illness but also of the human condition in general is stunning. The book examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers, Solomon reveals the subtleties, the complexities, and the agony of the disease.

Solomon, whose 1998 New Yorker article on depression garnered vast attention, confronts the challenge of defining the illness and the wide range of available drug treatments, the efficacy of alternative treatments, and the impact depression has on various demographic populations. He also explores the thorny moral and ethical questions posed by emerging biological explanations for mental illness.

Like Jacques Barzun, Robert Hughes, or Elaine Pagels, Solomon employs a single lens—depression—and through it shapes a work of immense cultural significance. This book will change readers' view of the world.