While You Were Out is a poignant story of a family facing a common, yet rarely, openly discussed problem: severe mental illness.
Investigative journalist, Meg Kissinger, examines her family's brush with mental illness with acuity and grace.
The memoir discusses suicide, two of her siblings committed suicide. Part of the memoir focuses on how her family coped with trauma with smart alecky humor. The real problem, mental illness, was taboo and could not be discussed.
The next part of the memoir focuses on how Meg devoted her life to mental health reporting. Meg investigated the terrible housing conditions that most mentally ill patients face. In 2013, she won the George Polk Award for medical writing.