“Packer's voice [has] extraordinary authority. . . . Compassionate, rich in solace.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Engrossing, forgiving and quietly wise. . . . Packer keeps both the pages and her readers' minds turning until the very end."
—People

“Packer has an unnerving ability to gaze steadily at feelings you can barely acknowledge even to yourself. . . . You are grateful for Packer's insight, refreshed and comforted by the depth of her empathy.”
—Newsday

“Songs Without Words is an eloquent, on occasion harrowing account of friendship and its limits, the mind and its fatal fragilities, and the saving graces of human nature. Packer captures mental pathologies exceptionally well and writes beautifully about despair and love and how they travel together throughout a lifetime.”
—Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind