First published 1999
When Sinedu Tadesse, a junior from Ethiopia at Harvard University, fatally stabbed her roommate 45 times before taking her own life, the prestigious institution faced intense media scrutiny. Author Melanie Thernstrom, herself a Harvard graduate and daughter of a university professor, examines this shocking tragedy with personal insight and careful attention to detail. She reveals how Harvard's demanding academic environment, despite its diverse student population that includes 19 percent Asian students and over one-third minorities, failed to recognize and support a student struggling with severe mental illness. Through Sinedu's own diary entries, Thernstrom exposes the isolation that can plague even the most academically gifted students. The investigation uncovers a troubling pattern of institutional neglect within an elite community that prides itself on excellence but overlooks the psychological wellbeing of its members.
Genres: biography, crime, mental-illness, non-fiction, psychological-thriller, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: institutional-neglect, isolation
Setting: Ethiopia, Harvard University
Period: 20th-century
240 pages · Paperback · Virago
Content warnings: mental-illness, murder, suicide