Nerve

A Personal Journey Through the Science of Fear

By: Eva Holland

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

SHORTLISTED for the 2021 BC and Yukon Book Prizes' Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize

A personal story about not only facing but conquering fears.

In 2015, Eva Holland was forced to confront her greatest fear when her mother had a stroke and suddenly passed away. After the shock and grief subsided, Holland began to examine the extent to which her many fears had limited her, and wondered whether or not it was possible to move past them.

This sent Holland on a deep dive into the science of fear, digging into an array of universal and personal questions: Why do we feel fear? Where do phobias come from and how are they related to anxiety disorders and trauma? Can you really smell fear? (Yes.) What would it be like to feel no fear? Is there a cure for fear? Or, put differently, is there a better way to feel afraid?

On her journey, Holland meets with scientists who are working to eliminate phobias with a single pill, she explores the lives of the few individuals who suffer from a rare disease that prevents them from ever feeling fear, and she immerses herself in her own fears including hurling herself out of a plane for her first skydive (and in the process, learns that there are right and wrong ways to face your fears).

Fear is a universal human experience, and Nerve answers these questions in a refreshingly accessible way, offering readers an often personal, sometimes funny, and always rigorously researched journey through the science of facing our fears.

©2020 Eva Holland (P)2020 Penguin Random House Canada

Critic reviews

2021, BC Book Prize's Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, Short-listed

"Nerve is a white-knuckle journey into extreme states of terror and grief, but it does more than merely evoke those feelings. It also illuminates them. It's a gift for all of us who are fated to live with fear and sorrow - that is, for human beings." (Brian Phillips, author of the best-selling Impossible Owls)

"Eva Holland put herself on the line to probe what makes us cower, and the result is this brave and emboldening book. Weaving memoir with science research and reportage, Nerve exposes fear for what it really is: a flush of chemicals, an evolutionary instinct, a mirror to the self - sometimes a liability, but often a guide." (Kate Harris, author of Lands of Lost Borders)