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Did an Unorthodox Therapist Drive a Woman to Suicide?

“Case Study,” by Graeme Macrae Burnet, is a novel of found documents detailing troubled lives and shifting identities.

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CASE STUDY, by Graeme Macrae Burnet

To get to Primrose Hill from central London, you take the Tube to Chalk Farm Station, exit to your right toward a cafe and an off-license, and climb a path to an overpass above train tracks. The path is called, rather unassumingly, Bridge Approach, and a five-minute walk leads to Primrose Hill. I happened to live in these parts for three years, and I crossed the overpass twice a day most days. Just to the south is the Pembroke Castle pub, where Liam Gallagher of Oasis was once arrested, in 1998. Another neighborhood tippler, Kingsley Amis, favored the Queen’s at the corner of St. George’s Terrace, according to his biographer Zachary Leader, who printed his monthly tab. From my balcony I could see the phone box where Sylvia Plath would desperately call Ted Hughes at his lover’s flat in her last days. It is a quiet neighborhood, but one dense with intrigue and peopled by famous, messy and tortured artistic personages.

The events of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s fourth novel, “Case Study,” are set off by a suicide in the 1960s by a young woman named Veronica, who jumps from the Bridge Approach overpass and is struck by the 4:45 train to High Barnet. (I am not sure that High Barnet trains, rather than Edgware-bound ones, run on this track, nor that the overpass itself, rather than just the path that approaches it, is called Bridge Approach, but these are the sorts of possible slight inaccuracies that Burnet and his not entirely reliable narrators relish.) An investigation into Veronica’s death and the man who might have been responsible for it — her therapist, Arthur Collins Braithwaite, whose office is on Primrose Hill — forms the substance of the narrative. Like Burnet’s previous novel, “ His Bloody Project ” (2016), “Case Study” was nominated for the Booker Prize and consists largely of purportedly found documents.

The would-be Miss Marple of Burnet’s loopy detective story is Veronica’s unnamed younger sister, who, under the alias Rebecca Smyth, becomes Braithwaite’s patient to find out if he drove Veronica to take her own life. Rebecca details her five sessions in notebooks that decades later end up in the hands of a writer named GMB, our frame narrator, who is researching Braithwaite for a potential biography. Now cast into obscurity, the (fictional) therapist was once a figure of note, appearing on BBC chat shows and publishing the books “Untherapy,” a best seller, and “Kill Your Self,” which Rebecca calls “a jumble of incomprehensible sentences, each having no discernible relationship to its neighbors.” Still, we are told by GMB, “Kill Your Self” “captured the zeitgeist,” acquired for its author a cult following from which he drew a lucrative pool of patients, and “if anything, the impenetrability of certain passages only served to confirm the author’s genius.”

“Case Study” consists of a preface, in which GMB explains how he received the notebooks (from Rebecca’s cousin, who noticed a blog post by GMB on Braithwaite); the five notebooks themselves, one of which includes a chapter clipped from “Untherapy” about a patient who is clearly Veronica; five biographical chapters about Braithwaite by GMB, inserted between the notebooks; and a postscript, in which GMB ventures south to pay a visit to the Pembroke Castle. The elegant nested structure is one of the novel’s chief appeals. So is the contrast between Rebecca’s narrative voice, characterized by what GMB calls “a certain kooky élan,” and the cool tone of GMB’s Life of Braithwaite. What emerges is a comedy of identities tried on and discarded. Given the number of suicides that mark the story, it’s a comedy with dark underpinnings.

Rebecca lives with her father, a retired engineer, and their housekeeper, and works as a receptionist for a talent agent. Her mother died when she was 15, falling off a cliff before her eyes, during a family holiday in Devon. Given that Rebecca is the only witness to the fall, and that she admits to fantasizing about pushing someone off the cliff the sentence before recounting her mother’s death, we can’t help suspecting that she might have done it herself. But we have no more reason to doubt it than the rest of her story, and that’s part of the fun: The whole tale might be a hoax.

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Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet review – unstable identities

This wry look at 1960s counterculture focuses on an enfant terrible of the anti-psychiatry movement to explore the gaps between appearance and reality

T he Booker-shortlisted 2015 novel His Bloody Project employed a range of narrative techniques to prod at the truth surrounding a murder in a 19th-century Scottish crofting community. Graeme Macrae Burnet’s concern was not so much with who committed the crime – we know that from the outset – but with the moral ambiguity inherent in assigning blame. His new novel, Case Study, is different in tone, though an interest in exploring complex psychological dramas through intricate narrative structures takes centre stage once again.

One of the key voices in His Bloody Project belongs to the prison doctor, charged with determining whether the accused is mentally fit to stand trial. The narrative spotlight in Case Study is focused on psychiatry itself, and how those who practise it are not always best qualified to pass judgment on the sanity or otherwise of those they purport to treat. The novel presents itself as the work of one “GMB”, a writer who has become interested in Collins Braithwaite, enfant terrible of the 1960s anti-psychiatry movement. After stumbling on Braithwaite’s “salacious, iconoclastic and compelling” collection of case studies, Untherapy, in a Glasgow bookshop, GMB toys with the idea of writing his biography. Although the plan meets with little enthusiasm from his agent and publisher, GMB’s fascination with Braithwaite is redoubled when he is contacted by a Mr Martin Grey, offering him six notebooks containing the journal of his cousin, whom Grey claims was a patient of Braithwaite. The notebooks contain “certain allegations” he is sure GMB will find of interest.

The notebooks are presented in full, interspersed with GMB’s biographical commentary. After giving up his studies at Oxford, Braithwaite spends a brief period working under RD Laing before pursuing his own more unorthodox path, later accusing his mentor of stealing his ideas. Railing against Laing’s success and unearned celebrity, Braithwaite sets himself up in practice near Primrose Hill, north London, an enterprise that seems doomed to failure until a chance encounter with Dirk Bogarde brings him an ever-expanding roster of celebrity clients. Braithwaite’s success is not to last, however, as his increasingly outrageous behaviour and monstrous egotism put him on a collision course with the law.

The six “Grey” notebooks offer the first-person account of an unnamed narrator, a young woman from a comfortable middle-class background whose older sister, Veronica, has recently killed herself. She believes the ultimate blame for Veronica’s death must lie with her psychotherapist, notorious “quack” Collins Braithwaite. Under the name Rebecca Smyth, the young woman books herself a consultation with Braithwaite, determined to discover the truth.

In his preface to the main text, GMB puts forward certain minor inaccuracies in the notebooks as grounds for questioning their authenticity, and as readers we would be advised to be equally suspicious. Those already familiar with Burnet’s writing have met GMB before, not only as the writer and researcher who claims distant kinship with the teenage murderer Roddy Macrae in His Bloody Project, but also as the translator of Burnet’s two “Raymond Brunet” crime novels. The defining essence of Burnet’s work to date is to be found in this kind of literary gamesmanship, a brand of metatextuality that is as much about exploiting the possibilities of the novel form as it is about blurring the boundaries between appearance and reality. In throwing us into doubt about which – and more crucially whose – story we are supposed to be following, Burnet encourages us to look more closely at the inherent instability of fiction itself. The painstakingly assembled, predominantly mimetic fiction of the 19th century has trained us to trust the author; Burnet has always delighted in undermining such easy assumptions, and in Case Study he ups the stakes still further, providing a veritable layer cake of possible realities to get lost in.

“Rebecca Smyth” tells us that in her sessions with Braithwaite he constantly questions her account of things, accusing her not only of inventing whole tracts of her past, but presenting him with an identity that is itself a construction. We know that in this at least Braithwaite is right, but with only the fictitious GMB’s word to go on that Braithwaite exists, it would be foolish for us to trust his suggestions or his analysis. The harder we tug on Burnet’s narrative threads, the more Veronica, her sister, and even Braithwaite himself start to look like different aspects of an unsteady unity.

In his rendering of the six notebooks, Burnet has cited the copious amounts of research he has undertaken, looking to the women’s magazines and journals of the 1950s and 60s in search of authenticity. While such publications might well reflect the moral tone and societal attitudes of the time, they are not necessarily an accurate representation of how young women in postwar England thought and felt. If we take the notebooks at face value, their shallowness and internalised misogyny quickly become irritating as well as unconvincing. If we choose to see them as satire, as part of the novel’s plot in a larger sense, they become something rather different.

As the notebooks progress, their unnamed narrator becomes ever more confused about her own identity. In wishing she was more like her invented alter ego, she begins to see Rebecca almost literally as a separate person, an uncanny simulacrum who can usurp her position and control her behaviour. In the biographical segments, GMB augments this with some interesting discursions on doubles in literature and Braithwaite’s Kierkegaard-inflected theories on the self. As the notebooks’ narrator slides further towards dissociation and depression, Case Study finally becomes a genuinely affecting discourse on mental health, the gulf between societal expectations and inward reality.

In pointed contrast to the gritty true-crime ambience of His Bloody Project, Case Study is above all a very funny book, a wry look back at 60s counterculture in which Burnet’s inventions rub shoulders with real personalities. But much as Braithwaite’s outlandish behaviour and performative rudeness might raise a knowing smile, his theories on identity and selfhood, appearance and reality are never as bonkers as we pretend they are. If Burnet’s aim in writing Case Study was to force us up against the contradictions of our conflicted selves, he has surely succeeded. This is a novel that is entertaining and mindfully engrossing in equal measure.

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by Graeme Macrae Burnet ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2022

A brisk and engaging novel that wears itself thin on the grindstone of its own conceit.

A provocative send-up of midcentury British mores and the roots of modern psychotherapy.

Toward the end of 2019, GMB, a character with the author's initials, receives an email from one Martin Grey, who has in his possession several notebooks he believes GMB might find of interest. Mr. Grey asserts that the notebooks were written by his cousin about Collins Braithwaite, the notorious and now largely forgotten “ enfant terrible of the so-called anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s,” on whom GMB has recently published a blog post. According to Grey, the notebooks contain evidence of near-criminal misconduct concerning Braithwaite’s involvement in the suicide of the diarist’s older sister, Veronica. GMB’s research assures him of the notebooks’ authenticity, if not their veracity, and he presents their contents verbatim, interspersed with sections of his own outline of Braithwaite’s salacious life and ignoble death. From the plinth of this metatextual introduction, the book dives into the “kooky élan” of a thoroughly middle-class young woman—the diarist—as she infiltrates Braithwaite’s office under the nom de guerre Rebecca Smyth. Rebecca is bent on uncovering the truth about Braithwaite’s therapeutic practice though she’s unsure what purpose this truth would serve. However, over the course of the five notebooks, Rebecca’s rapid descent into true depression coupled with her increasing difficulty in keeping her original identity separate from her assumed self become the driving narrative. As the novel progresses, the author’s layering of his fictional characters’ unverifiable testimony, frank deception, and self-aggrandizing half-truths with significant historical figures of the time—like R.D. Laing and Dirk Bogarde—and GMB's omnipresent frame narrative overlap to the extent that it's hard to tell not just whose perception to trust, but which among all these counterfeit identities is real. As beguiling as Rebecca’s wry domestic critique can be, the book’s star is clearly the carefully constructed unreliability Burnet imbues at every level of his writing. This results in a novel that strives toward the biggest of questions—in the absence of the Cartesian ego Braithwaite seeks to slay, is there anything at all underneath our masks?—but lacks the character-driven empathy that would encourage us to care about the answer.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-77196-520-0

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Biblioasis

Review Posted Online: July 25, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022

LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

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New York Times Bestseller

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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by Kristin Hannah

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BOOK TO SCREEN

SEEN & HEARD

by Elin Hilderbrand ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2024

Though Hilderbrand threatens to kill all our darlings with this last laugh, her acknowledgments say it’s just “for now.”

A stranger comes to town, and a beloved storyteller plays this creative-writing standby for all it’s worth.

Hilderbrand fans, a vast and devoted legion, will remember Blond Sharon, the notorious island gossip. In what is purportedly the last of the Nantucket novels, Blond Sharon decides to pursue her lifelong dream of fiction writing. In the collective opinion of the island—aka the “cobblestone telegraph”—she’s qualified. “Well, we think, she’s certainly demonstrated her keen interest in other people’s stories, the seedier and more salacious, the better.” Blond Sharon’s first assignment in her online creative writing class is to create a two-person character study, and Hilderbrand has her write up the two who arrive on the ferry in an opening scene of the book, using the same descriptors Hilderbrand has. Amusingly, the class is totally unimpressed. “‘I found it predictable,’ Willow said. ‘Like maybe Sharon used ChatGPT with the prompt “Write a character study about two women getting off the ferry, one prep and one punk.”’” Blond Sharon abandons these characters, but Hilderbrand thankfully does not. They are Kacy Kapenash, daughter of retiring police chief Ed Kapenash (the other swan song referred to by the title), and her new friend Coco Coyle, who has given up her bartending job in the Virgin Islands to become a “personal concierge” for the other strangers-who-have-come-to-town. These are the Richardsons, Bull and Leslee, a wild and wealthy couple who have purchased a $22 million beachfront property and plan to take Nantucket by storm. As the book opens, their house has burned down during an end-of-summer party on their yacht, and Coco is missing, feared both responsible for the fire and dead. Though it’s the last weekend of his tenure, Chief Ed refuses to let the incoming chief, Zara Washington, take this one over. The investigation goes forward in parallel with a review of the summer’s intrigues, love affairs, and festivities. Whatever else you can say about Leslee Richardson, she knows how to throw a party, and Hilderbrand is just the writer to design her invitations, menus, themes, playlists, and outfits. And that hot tub!

Pub Date: June 11, 2024

ISBN: 9780316258876

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024

FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION

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Book review: Case Study, by Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet is a master of the false but apparently authentic document. There are five lengthy ones in this, his fourth novel, intercut by a likewise credibly invented biographical sketch of a briefly famous, or rather notorious, psychotherapist, Collins Braithwaite, “a contemporary of RD Laing, and something of an ‘enfant terrible’ of the so-called anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s.” Braithwaite’s historical authenticity is filled out not only by notes of his jealousy of Laing, and Laing’s contempt for him, but by mention of his relationships with other celebrities of the time. It is very well done, and it is tempting to believe that the dreadful and dangerous shrink really existed.

The unnamed author (ie. Macrae Burnet), having written something about Braithwaite, is sent a package of five notebooks which “contained certain allegations about Braithwaite which [the sender] is sure would interest him.”

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The notebooks are written by a young woman whose elder sister, Veronica, a brilliant Cambridge academic, committed suicide by throwing herself off a bridge. After reading a case study in Braithwaite’s book Untherapy, the writer of the notebooks is sure that the patient described is Veronica, and, having read its successor Kill Your Self, is also convinced that Braithwaite was responsible for Veronica’s death. She resolves to investigate, being all the more determined because she has been the rather dim, unconsidered younger sister, while Veronica was Daddy’s girl.

Naturally she can’t make an appointment under her own name with Dr Braithwaite; it would arouse suspicion. So she calls herself Rebecca Smyth, and Rebecca proves to be very different from her own timid self. Rebecca is clever, striking and eager for the experience that the narrator’s hitherto shy and unambitious self has shunned. Will she take over? I was reminded of the ventriloquist’s malignant dummy in that 1945 classic film Dead of Night.

Meanwhile, the unnamed author follows the course of Braithwaite’s headlong career, one that is both destructive of others and of himself, as he presents himself as the hard, working-class Northern Boy who has cast off all inhibitions as he pursues his self-appointed “mission to bring down the jerry-built edifice of psychiatry.” But, one finds oneself wondering: is Braithwaite in his arrogance and jealously as much of a phoney construct as that which he discerns in his clients? Is he wicked or merely stupidly careless in his approach to others? Do they indeed exist for him?

This is a novel which, like Macrae Burnet’s previous ones, holds the attention, develops an insidious narrative interest, and poses questions about the nature of the self and the authenticity of identity. There is comedy here too. Indeed, depending on the angle of view, Braithwaite is a comic character, if also a disturbing one. Certainly in his depiction of him, Macrae Burnet catches the self-satisfied idiocy of one strand of 1960s culture. Indeed, he is done so well and seems so authentic in his inauthenticity that you might be surprised to find no mention of him in the index of John Clay’s admirable biography of Ronnie Laing.

For the most part, though Macrae Burnet finds different voices for the writer of the notebooks and the unnamed author of the biographical Braithwaite chapters, his style is plain, lucid, very readable and rich in irony. There are fine comic passages, for instance the notebook writer’s visit to a pub with a young man who has been attracted by her assumed self, Rebecca, who insists that she should ask for gin as the non-Rebecca never would. But it is the appalling and yet ultimately rather pathetic Braithwaite who gives the book its momentum, and it is through him that the tone and temper of the times are captured. As in his other novels, Macrae Burnet writes with an admirable lucidity, at the same time being able to probe and shed light on the dark places of the mind. Writing in a prose that is spare, deadpan and yet alive, he poses questions about the nature and perception of what we choose to call reality. He is an uncommonly interesting and satisfying novelist.

Case Study, by Graeme Macrae Burnet, Saraband, 276pp, £14.99

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Hacking the Case Interview

What are the best case interview books? 

Case interview books are resources designed to help individuals prepare for consulting interviews, particularly those that involve solving complex business problems or case studies. These books provide guidance on the interview process, frameworks, and case examples to practice.

Selecting the right case interview book to use can make the difference between acing your case interviews and getting rejected by consulting firms.

You’ll spend many hours practicing cases using the strategies that you learn from these prep books. So, you’ll want to make sure you are using the best books to learn the most effective and efficient case interview strategies.

In this article, we’ll recommend you the best case interview books to read based on our thorough review of 15 of the best case interview books.

If you’re looking for a step-by-step shortcut to learn case interviews quickly, enroll in our case interview course . These insider strategies from a former Bain interviewer helped 30,000+ land consulting offers while saving hundreds of hours of prep time.

What is a Case Interview?

A case interview , also known as a “case” for short, is a 30 to 45-minute exercise in which you and the interviewer work together to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

These business problems can be anything that real companies face:

• How can Uber increase its profitability?
• What can Netflix do to increase customer retention?
• How should Tesla price its new electric vehicle?
• Where should Disney open another Disneyland theme park?

Case interviews simulate what the consulting job will be like by placing you in a hypothetical business situation. Cases simulate real business problems that consulting firms solve for their clients. Many case interviews are based on actual projects that interviewers have worked on.

While consulting projects typically last between 3 to 9 months, case interviews condense solving the business problem into just 30 to 45 minutes.

Case interviews can cover any industry, including retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, energy, education, healthcare, government, and technology.

They can also cover a wide range of business situations, including entering a new market, launching a new product, acquiring a company, improving profitability, and growing revenues.

Although case interviews cover a wide range of industries and business situations, no technical or specialized knowledge is needed.

Why Read Case Interview Books?

Case interviews are unlike anything you’ve probably ever seen before at school or on the job. They require sufficient preparation. Very few candidates can walk into a consulting interview and nail their case interviews with zero practice.

Case interview books are needed for five reasons. The best case interview books show you what to expect, teach strategies and techniques, provide a math refresher, provide a business refresher, and provide mock case interviews to practice with.

1. What to expect : Case interviews books cover the typical structure and flow of a case interview. You should be familiar with this so that you know what to expect in your interview.

2. Case interview strategies : Case interview books provide strategies and techniques that you can use to nail the different parts of the case interview. In a case interview, you’ll need to:

• Summarize the case background information
• Ask clarifying questions
• Structure a framework
• Kick off and drive the direction of the case
• Solve quantitative problems
• Answer qualitative questions
• Deliver a recommendation

3. Math refresher:  Some case interview books provide a refresher of the essential math skills you need to solve case interviews. This is especially helpful for candidates that don’t have a quantitative background or candidates that have not done math in a while. Important math skills needed include:

• Addition and subtraction
• Multiplication and division
• Percent change formula
• Profit formula
• Compounded annual growth rate formula
• ROI formula

4. Business refresher : Some case interview books provide a refresher of essential business knowledge and concepts. This is especially helpful for candidates that do not have a business background. Examples of important business concepts include:

• Barriers to entry
• Market size
• Competitive advantage

5. Practice cases : Case interview books provide examples of case interviews that you can read, follow-along with, or practice with a case partner. Getting sufficient practice greatly improves your chances of passing your case interviews.

Where to Find Case Interview Books

There are plenty of places to find the best case interview books to help you prepare for consulting interviews. Whether you prefer browsing in-person or shopping online, there's an option for everyone.

Case interview books can be purchased at local bookstores or online shopping retailers. They can also be borrowed through your network of friends and colleagues.

Let's start with the classic route: your local bookstore. Bookstores often have dedicated sections for business and career development. Here, you can sift through shelves filled with books on consulting interview strategies and techniques. It's a great way to get a feel for different titles and find one that looks appealing to you.

But if you enjoy the convenience of online shopping, Amazon is your best friend. With just a few clicks, you can access a vast array of the best case interview books. Plus, you can read reviews from other readers to help you make an informed decision. Whether you prefer physical copies or e-books, Amazon has you covered.

However, don't overlook the power of your own network. Borrowing books from friends or colleagues is not only a budget-friendly option but also a great way to connect with others who are also navigating the world of consulting case interviews. You can exchange tips, practice together, and learn from each other's experiences.

So, whether you enjoy browsing local bookstores, the ease of online shopping, or the camaraderie of borrowing from friends, there's no shortage of ways to find the best case interview books. Each option has its benefits, so don't be afraid to explore them all to find the best case interview books that fit your needs.

What Are the Different Case Interview Books?

While there are 15+ case interview books, the most popular books are: Case in Point by Marc Cosentino, Hacking The Case Interview by Taylor Warfield, Case Interview Secrets by Victor Cheng, and Crack the Case by David Ohrvall.

The full list of case interview books available today are:

• Hacking the Case Interview (Taylor Warfield)
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (Taylor Warfield)
• Case Interview Secrets (Victor Cheng)
• Case in Point (Marc Cosentino)
• Crack the Case (David Ohrvall)
• Interview Math (Lewis C. Lin)
• Embrace the Case Interview (Brad Schiller)
• Case Weights (Ben Okon)
• Cracking Case Interviews (Max Serrano & Jonathon Yarde)
• 20 Days to Ace the Case (Destin Whitehurst & Erin Robinson)
• Case Interviews for Beginners (Stephen Pidgeon)
• The Case Interview Workbook (Robert Mellon)
• Case Master (Ron Clouse & Valentin Nugmanov)
• Mastering the Case Interview (Alexander Chernev)
• How to Get into the Top Consulting Firms (Tim Darling)

We’ll provide a comprehensive review of each book, covering the pros and cons of each and recommend you the best case interview books to read.

How to Choose the Best Case Interview Books

Choosing the best case interview books can significantly impact your preparation and performance. With countless options available, it's essential to consider several factors to find the ones that suit your learning style and goals.

Firstly, assess your current level of familiarity with case interviews. If you're new to case interviews, look for beginner-friendly books that provide a comprehensive overview of case interview frameworks, problem-solving techniques, and common pitfalls. On the other hand, if you're more experienced or aiming for advanced strategies, opt for books that offer in-depth analysis and challenging cases.

Next, think about your preferred learning format. Do you prefer concise, actionable guides with practical exercises, or do you thrive on comprehensive, theory-heavy texts? Some books are structured as step-by-step manuals, while others take a more conceptual approach. Determine which style resonates with you and enhances your understanding and retention of the material.

Additionally, take into account reviews and recommendations from trusted sources. Look for books that receive praise for their clarity, effectiveness, and applicability to real consulting case interviews. Reading reviews from fellow readers or consulting professionals can provide valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of each book, helping you make an informed decision.

Lastly, don't underestimate the importance of practice materials. The best case interview books often come with companion resources such as practice cases, video tutorials, or online platforms. These supplementary materials allow you to apply what you've learned, refine your skills, and track your progress over time.

By considering your current knowledge level, preferred learning format, reviews, and available practice materials, you can confidently choose the best case interview books to support your preparation journey.

This may sound like a lot of work, but don't worry because we've done the hard work for you!

We assessed the 15 best case interview books by consolidating customer reviews from Amazon, Goodreads, and consulting forums with my perspective as a former Bain Manager and interviewer. These books were assessed on the following eight criteria: comprehensiveness, depth of coverage, clarity, conciseness, currentness, practice cases, author credibility, and engagement.

• Comprehensiveness : Does the case interview book cover all the necessary principles and concepts to ace interviews? Does it provide strategies and tips for every step of the case interview process?
• Depth of coverage : Are sufficient examples provided? Are there sufficient explanations provided?
• Clarity : Is the case interview book written clearly? Is it easy to read and understand?
• Conciseness : Is the case interview book written concisely? Does it avoid adding fluff or unnecessary anecdotes?
• Currentness : Has the case interview book been updated recently? Does it contain the latest, up-to-date information?
• Practice cases : Does the book have high quality practice cases? How many practice cases are provided?
• Author credibility : Does the author come from a relevant and credible background? How knowledgeable is the author on case interviews?
• Engagement : Is the case interview book an interesting and fun read? Is there some personality or style added into the content?

We took a structured, comprehensive approach to make sure we thoroughly evaluated each book and only recommend the very best case interview books for you to purchase and read. The goal was to save you time and money during your case interview preparation journey.

What Are the Best Case Interview Books?

The three best case interview books are: Hacking the Case Interview (Taylor Warfield), The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (Taylor Warfield), and Case Interview Secrets (Victor Cheng). These books provide the most effective strategies in a comprehensive and clear way.

These books were assessed based on: comprehensiveness, depth of coverage, clarity, conciseness, currentness, practice cases, author credibility, and engagement.

Below is our full rankings of the best case interview books:

Comprehensive Review of the Best Case Interview Books

Below, we provide our specific evaluations on 15 case interview books.

For each book, we discuss the pros and cons as well as our overall recommendation and thoughts.

Hacking the Case Interview Review

We strongly recommend Hacking the Case Interview as the first case interview book you should read. It teaches the most efficient way to learn case interviews to make the best use of your time. The strategies and methods in this book are much more updated and robust than traditional strategies found in Case Interview Secrets and Case in Point. Additionally, the practice cases closely simulate real case interviews.

Hacking the Case Interview has consistently received reviews as the most concise and straight to the point case interview prep book in the market. There is no fluff, anecdotal stories, or long explanations that many other case interview books have. The book breaks down case interviews in a simple, clear, and concise format for easy understanding and application.

The book has received praise for its robust framework strategy, which allows candidates to showcase their natural business intuition instead of using stale, memorized frameworks. Many other case interview texts push for methods or frameworks that are overly complex and not that effective.

The primary feedback from readers is for more practice cases to be included in the book, which is what led the author to write “The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook.” That book provides additional practice problems and practice cases to supplement this book.

The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook Review

We highly recommend The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook to hone your case interview skills once you have learned the right case interview strategies,. The 15 practice cases can be done individually or with a partner and closely simulate the case interviews you’ll see on interview day. If there are particular areas of the case interview that you struggle with, you can hone in on those areas by doing over 65 practice problems across nine different types of case interview questions.

Reviews have consistently complimented the wide range of high-quality practice problems and practice cases that The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook provides. One reviewer mentioned that out of 33 case interviews, 25 of them had cases that were similar or relevant to the practice cases in this book. Readers have found the explanations in the book to be clear and insightful, helping them improve their case interview abilities.

Reviews also mention that this book is great for practicing case interviews on your own because they are written in a format such that they can be done individually or with a partner.

Since this book focuses on case interview practice, it only provides a brief summary of case interview strategies in each section. To learn case interview strategies, you should supplement this book with “Hacking the Case Interview” or another case interview prep book that teaches you strategies.

Case Interview Secrets Review

Case Interview Secrets is worth a read. Overall, it provides great explanations of essential case interview concepts. The stories and anecdotes in the book are entertaining and help paint a clear picture of what to expect in a case interview, what interviewers are looking for, and how to solve a case interview.

Case Interview Secrets is the book I primarily used to land my job offer at Bain. It provides great explanations on fundamental case interview concepts. The book paints a clear picture of why case interviews are used, what to expect, and how interviewer’s evaluate candidates.

However, the book is quite a long read and some concepts and principles could have been summarized in a much shorter way, without using long stories and anecdotes.

Additionally, the framework strategy is a bit too simplistic to be effective in all case interviews. The book basically teaches you two frameworks. One framework is simply the formula for profit. The other framework is known as the business situation framework and is comprised of the elements of customer, competition, product, and company, to use in nearly all of your cases.

Now a days, interviewers can easily tell when you are using memorized frameworks, so just using this book’s framework strategy will not help you stand out among other candidates.

Finally, there are no practice cases in this book, so you’ll have to find practice problems and cases elsewhere.

For a more detailed review, check out our article on a Comprehensive Review of Case Interview Secrets .

Interview Math Review

Interview Math is a decent book. It is most helpful for candidates that are looking to improve their consulting math skills. The book provides plenty of practice on how to solve common types of problems, such as market sizing, profitability, and breakeven . However, the book lacks practice on how to use business judgment to correctly interpret answers to quantitative questions. You’ll likely need to supplement this book with other books or resources to get that type of practice.

Case Interview Math is structured very clearly, so you can easily focus on the types of math problems that give you the most trouble. There are plenty of practice questions and clearly explained solutions.

However, the book focuses purely on doing math. It does not cover how to use business judgment to make sense of the numbers. Rather, it focuses on just calculating the correct answer and stopping there.

Embrace the Case Interview Review

Embrace the Case Interview is a decent book. It covers a lot of material, including resumes and cover letters , behavioral interview questions, and case interviews. The information and strategies are all useful and better than most consulting interview prep books. However, there are a few case interview books that provide slightly more robust strategies and explain the different parts of the case interview in a bit more detail.

Unlike many other case interview books, Embrace the Case Interview covers how to write an outstanding resume and cover letter. The tips are helpful, but are not as comprehensive or detailed as many of the consulting resume and cover letter guides online that you can read for free.

The framework strategy presented in Embrace the Case Interview is similar to the framework strategy in Hacking the Case Interview, but is not as robust.

Embrace the Case provides great information on answering qualitative questions, quantitative questions, and delivering a recommendation.

Overall, the information in the book is collectively helpful. However, there are other case interview prep books that explain certain sections a bit more thoroughly and provide slightly more robust strategies.

Case Weights Review

Case Weights is a decent workbook to practice your case interview skills. Although it goes into detail on how to approach the nine different components of the case interview, some of the strategies are unnecessarily complicated.

Additionally, the book does not provide as many practice problems as other case interview books and has no full-length practice cases. It may be helpful to read through the strategies presented, but know you’ll likely need to adapt the strategies to make them a bit simpler.

Case Weights has an interesting way of breaking down the case interview into nine components, which make up the “Fortress of Caseitude.” The book is very structured in providing a lot of detail on tips to approach each component. However, some strategies are unnecessarily complicated. Other case interview books have strategies that are simpler and more effective than the strategies in this book.

The book provides a few drills in each section, but more practice problems are needed to really practice case interview math, market sizing, brainstorming, and interpreting charts and exhibits.

Finally, there are no full-length practice cases included, which would have been helpful to bring all of the learnings together.

Case Master Review

Case Master is an okay case interview book to practice working through various different kinds of case interviews. While the cases are detailed and thorough, the pacing and style may not be representative of actual cases you’ll see in a consulting interview. Instead, the book focuses on providing more challenging cases to help you identify weakness areas.

Because of this and the fact that there are only eight practice cases, you’ll likely need to supplement this book with other case interview books to get more practice.

The practice cases in the Case Masters are very thorough, detailed, and much longer in length than practice cases in other case interview books. The case dialogue helps the reader understand what the case interview sounds like and the case debrief provides a lot of learnings that the reader can take away.

The only potential issue with these practice cases is that they are not entirely representative of the types of cases you’ll see in real case interviews. A case interview goes quite quickly, usually lasting between 20 to 40 minutes. In a real case interview, you will not have the time to think through all of the potential considerations and get answers to all of your questions.

Nevertheless, the practice cases are entertaining to read and you’ll learn a new business concept in each case that you complete.

Cracking Case Interviews Review

Cracking Case Interviews is a decent book. While none of the information in the book is groundbreaking or unique, it provides clear summaries for key case interview concepts, heavily focused on McKinsey style interviews. The book also includes resume and cover letter tips and strategies for answering behavioral questions. However, most of the tips are fairly straight forward and covered in many other case interview books.

Although there are five practice cases, reader feedback suggests that they serve more as a guide rather than realistic case interview practice.

Case in Point Review

Case in Point is the most popular case interview book. Although it has been the best-selling case interview book on Amazon for a long time, the strategies in this book are outdated and overly complex. The practice cases are not representative of cases you’ll see in an actual case interview. However, it does cover a lot of fundamental business concepts by going through the 12 popular case scenarios, which may be helpful to read for those without a business background.

Case in Point provides a ton of information by covering 12 different case scenarios. These may be helpful to read for people that do not have a strong business background.

However, Case in Point’s strategy of memorizing 12 different frameworks to apply to 12 different case scenarios does not work in case interviews now a days. Often, memorized frameworks will have elements that are not relevant and important to the particular case you receive. Even when they are relevant, interviewers can tell when you are using memorized frameworks and not thinking critically.

If you solely rely on the case system strategy in this book, you will have a hard time distinguishing yourself from other candidates.

Additionally, the practice cases in this book are too short and simple to be representative of cases you’ll actually see in a case interview. They are written in a dialogue format, making it difficult to practice on your own or with a partner.

For a more detailed review, check out our article on a Comprehensive Review of Case in Point .

Crack the Case System Review

We do not recommend Crack the Case System . It overcomplicates the case interview process by providing many different mnemonics for the reader to memorize for different case situations. A lot of the information in the book is generic and common-sense. There are much better case interview books that provide more robust and effective strategies in a more succinct and easier to understand way.

Readers of the book have commented that 25% of the book is useful and the rest is fairly generic information.

The first one hundred pages of the book provides a lot of generic case interview advice that does not need one hundred pages to explain. For example, the author tells you to be nice, avoid wearing unprofessional clothing, make small talk, and have a firm handshake, which does not add that much value to readers.

The strategies in this framework revolve around basic mnemonics. For example, one strategy provided is summarized as FRAME: form a plan, read the audience, anchor a hypothesis, mine for an answer, and end the case. Again, this information does not add that much value to readers.

The author’s Maximum Value Model is a massive set of different things to memorize for five different case scenarios. The Maximum Value Model is not only difficult to memorize, but ineffective in most case interviews.

Using memorized frameworks to solve case interviews is not the right way to solve cases. Often, the elements in your memorized framework will not be relevant to the case. Interviewers also know when you are regurgitating memorized information and not thinking critically for yourself.

Additionally, the supplementary online videos repeat a lot of the contents of the book. You do not need to purchase the book to get access to the online material, so if you decide to use this resource, you can get the same material online for free.

Overall, the book and online material overcomplicates the case interview process and presents a lot of generic case interview strategies using mnemonics.

Case Interviews for Beginners Review

We do not recommend Case Interviews for Beginners . While it does provide basic and helpful information on case interviews, there are many other case interview books that do a much better job of it. There are no unique strategies or pieces of information in this book that other case interview books do not cover.

The book provides very basic information on the case interview. By the end of the book, you’ll understand what a case interview is and have an idea of what mistakes to avoid. However, the book does not offer too many actionable strategies for tackling each step of the case interview. For example, it does not go into detail on how to create an effective structure or how to deliver a structured recommendation.

While the book is fairly short in length at about 130 pages, it does repeat many points. Additionally, there are also no practice cases in Case Interviews for Beginners, so you will need to use other books and resources to practice anything that you have learned in the book.

The Case Interview Workbook Review

The Case Interview Workbook is not worth your time or purchase. We strongly recommend that you use other case interview books or resources to practice case interviews.

With 60 practice cases, the Case Interview Workbook sounds like a great resource, but unfortunately does not live up to expectations.

One, these cases are not representative of case interviews you’ll actually see on interview day as they are overly short and simplistic. Each practice case is only 1 – 2 pages long, covering only one or two questions each.

Two, these cases are taken from publicly available resources on the internet. A lot of the titles to the practice cases are taken directly from MBA casebooks. Why pay for these cases when you can use MBA casebooks for free? While the author claims to have edited these cases, they are still low-quality practice cases. There are many other case interview books that provide higher-quality practice cases.

20 Days to Ace the Case Review

We do not recommend 20 Days to Ace the Case . The book does not provide enough detailed strategies to tackle each part of the case interview. There are case interview books that provide more robust and effective strategies as well as higher-quality practice cases.

Structuring the book to prepare for case interviews in 20 days is a very interesting concept, but unfortunately the book does not live up to expectations. Since half of the chapters are mock interviews, there is not that much content on actual case interview strategies.

For example, the book covers two very basic frameworks, the profitability framework and the internal/external framework. While these frameworks do work in certain case situations, the book does not cover how to create a framework for the majority of different case situations. Additionally, these frameworks are nothing special and will not help you distinguish yourself from other candidates.

If you were to solely rely on this book 20 days before your case interview, you would not learn enough strategies to tackle case interviews and you would likely not get enough practice.

How to Get into the Top Consulting Firms Review

How to Get into the Top Consulting Firms was written in 2009 and is skippable. Feedback from readers has suggested that the book is lower quality than other books in the market and fails to meet expectations. Readers cite typos, miscalculations, and even missing text. While there are some good pieces of information in the book on the general consulting interview process, these bits are easily found elsewhere. The case interview strategies are basic and simple.

Mastering the Case Interview Review

Readers cite that Mastering the Case Interview was not particularly useful when read along with a few of the other case interview prep books. The information is redundant and unnecessary with content that is easily found elsewhere. This book has the lowest Goodreads rating of all books we’ve reviewed, less than 3.5/5.

The book has sample case questions, but only a few questions are answered in each section. The rest is left as an exercise to the reader without providing solutions. There is feedback from readers that the case questions should have more thorough analysis done.

How to Use Case Interview Books

There are five steps to use your case interview books effectively: understand what a case interview is, learn the right strategies, practice by yourself, practice with a partner, and work on improving one thing at a time.

1. Understand what a case interview is

The first step in preparing for consulting case interviews is to understand exactly what case interviews are and what a perfect case interview performance looks like.

Knowing what a great case interview performance looks like will facilitate how quickly you learn case interview strategies in the next step. It’ll give you a concrete goal that you can replicate and strive for.

2. Learn case interview strategies first before practicing

Now that you understand what case interviews are, the next step in preparing for case interviews is to learn the right strategies to build good case interview habits.

It is much more effective to learn the right case strategies the first time than to learn poor strategies and try to correct them later.

Make sure to spend sufficient time learning the right strategies before starting to practice cases. It is ineffective to practice cases if you have no idea what strategies to practice and refine.

3. Practice 3-5 cases by yourself

Once you have learned the right strategies, the next step in case interview prep is to practice.

When practicing case interviews, it is usually better to practice with a case interview partner than to practice by yourself . Casing with a partner better simulates the real case interview experience.

However, when you are just starting to practice, I recommend doing the first 3 – 5 cases by yourself.

There are three reasons for this:

You can get the hang of the case interview structure and format much more quickly working by yourself rather than having to wait to schedule a time with a partner

There are many aspects of case interviews that you can practice without a partner, such as structuring a framework and solving quantitative problems. You can get much more practice working through these parts by yourself

You may have difficulty finding a case interview partner if you are a complete case interview beginner . Without having done any cases, you likely won’t know how to properly give a case or provide good feedback.

For practice cases, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .

4. Practice 5-10 cases with a partner

The next step in preparing for case interviews is to case with a partner.

Casing with a partner is the best way to simulate a real case interview. There are many aspects of case interviews that you won’t be able to improve on unless you practice live with a partner.

When practicing cases with a partner, ensure you are spending enough time after cases to deliver feedback.

For a case that takes around 30 – 40 minutes, spend at least 15 – 20 minutes for feedback. Much of your learning and improvement will come from these feedback sessions.

5. Work on improving one thing at a time

In this step of preparing for case interviews, you will work on strengthening and fine-tuning your improvement areas. Examples of common improvement areas include:

• Creating a more complete and mutually exclusive framework
• Performing math calculations quicker or more smoothly
• Providing more structure to your qualitative answers
• Leading the case more proactively
• Delivering a more succinct recommendation

Try to focus on improving one thing at a time. This is much more effective than trying to improve everything at once.

For some areas, such as math, it will be better to work independently. For other areas, such as learning to proactively lead the case, it will be better to work with a case partner.

Resources Beyond Case Interview Books

Besides case interview books, many candidates use case interview courses, case interview coaching, and MBA casebooks to prepare for their consulting interviews.

Case Interview Courses

Case interview courses are more expensive to use than case interview books, but offer more efficient and effective learning. You’ll learn much more quickly from watching someone teach you the material, provide examples, and then walk through practice problems than from reading a book by yourself.

Courses typically cost anywhere between $200 to $400.

If you are looking for a single resource to learn the best case interview strategies in the most efficient way possible, enroll in our comprehensive case interview course .

Through 70+ concise video lessons and 20 full-length practice cases based on real interviews from top-tier consulting firms, you’ll learn step-by-step how to crush your case interviews.

We’ve had students pass their consulting first round interview with just a week of preparation, but know that your success depends on the amount of effort you put in and your starting capabilities.

Case Interview Coaching

With case interview coaching, you’ll pay anywhere between $100 to $300 for a 40- to 60-minute mock case interview session with a case coach. Typically, case coaches are former consultants or interviewers that have worked at top-tier consulting firms.

Although very expensive, case interview coaching can provide you with high quality feedback that can significantly improve your case interview performance. By working with a case coach, you will be practicing high quality cases with an expert. You’ll get detailed feedback that ordinary case interview partners are not able to provide.

Know that you do not need to purchase case interview coaching to receive a consulting job offer. The vast majority of candidates that receive offers from top firms did not purchase case interview coaching. By purchasing case interview coaching, you are essentially purchasing convenience and learning efficiency.

Case interview coaching is best for those that have already learned as much as they can about case interviews on their own and feel that they have reached a plateau in their learning. For case interview beginners and intermediates, it may be a better use of their money to first purchase a case interview course or case interview prep book before purchasing expensive coaching sessions.

If you do decide to eventually use a case interview coach, consider using our case coaching service .

There is a wide range of quality among coaches, so ensure that you are working with someone that is invested in your development and success. If possible, ask for reviews from previous candidates that your coach has worked with.

Case Interview MBA Casebooks

Consulting casebooks are documents that MBA consulting clubs put together to help their members prepare for consulting case interviews. Consulting casebooks provide some case interview strategies and tips, but they mostly contain case interview practice cases.

While consulting casebooks contain tons of practice cases, there is quite a bit of variety in the sources and formats of these cases.

Some practice cases are taken from actual consulting interviews given by consulting firms. These are the best types of cases to practice with because they closely simulate the length and difficulty of an actual case interview. Other practice cases may be written by the consulting club’s officers. These cases are less realistic, but can still offer great practice.

The formats of the practice cases in consulting casebooks also vary significantly.

Some practice cases are written in a question and answer format. This type of format makes it easy to practice the case by yourself, without a case partner. Other practices cases are written in a dialogue format. These cases are better for practicing with a case interview partner.

Below, you will find links to download MBA consulting casebooks from 23 different business schools. These casebooks will provide you with over 700 practice cases that you can use to hone your case interview skills. These cases are a great supplement to the practice cases that consulting firms provide .

The year indicates when the consulting casebook was published. Some consulting clubs publish a new casebook each year while others may use the same casebook for multiple years. Therefore, even the older casebooks can still contain valuable practice cases.

If you’re looking for a step-by-step shortcut to learn case interviews quickly,  enroll in our case interview course . These insider strategies from a former Bain interviewer helped 30,000+ land consulting offers while saving hundreds of hours of prep time.

• Australian Graduate School of Management (2002)
• Booth (2005)
• Columbia (2007)
• Darden (2019)
• ESADE (2011)
• Fuqua (2018)
• Goizueta (2006)
• Haas (2019)
• Harvard Business School (2012)
• Illinois (2015)
• INSEAD (2011)
• Johnson (2003)
• Kellogg (2012)
• London Business School (2013)
• McCombs (2018)
• Notre Dame (2017)
• Queens (2019)
• Ross (2010)
• Sloan (2015)
• Stern (2018)
• Tuck (2009)
• Wharton (2017)
• Yale (2013)

Land Your Dream Consulting Job

Here are the resources we recommend to land your dream consulting job:

For help landing consulting interviews

• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple consulting interviews

For help passing case interviews

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with a former Bain interviewer.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.

For help passing consulting behavioral & fit interviews

• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer.

Land Multiple Consulting Offers

Complete, step-by-step case interview course. 30,000+ happy customers.

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Graeme Macrae Burnet Biblioasis ( Nov 1, 2022 ) Softcover $18.95 ( 288pp ) 978-1-77196-520-0

A psychology enthusiast dives into writings by and about his favorite psychologist in Graeme Macrae Burnet’s literary novel Case Study .

Upon discovering that her sister had been seeing rogue psychologist Collins Braithwaite before committing suicide, a young woman, known as “Rebecca,” sets out to prove that he drove her sister to despair and is, therefore, a murderer. Her efforts consist of several sessions with Braithwaite where she spins yarns based on actual experiences, delving into her deepest secrets. She records these in her notebooks, which find their way to a distant cousin, who, in turn, passes them along to an author, initials GMB, with a known interest in all things Braithwaite.

The fictional author and Burnet share the same initials, which should be a clue as to how close the book will come to breaking the fourth wall. It is a small detail, overlooked and forgotten as the recollections within the notebooks unfold. Until the narrative changes. The chapters alternate between Rebecca’s notebooks and a biography of Braithwaite, following him from childhood through his dissolute adulthood. Rebecca’s personal explorations of her innermost thoughts and suppressed experiences, spurred by her conversations with Braithwaite, contrast with Braithwaite’s depersonalized biography. Even so, they are complementary, one offering insight into the other.

Braithwaite’s biographical information is detailed, including the moment he developed an interest in psychology and his therapeutic approach. Of particular interest is his writing career, which is where Rebecca begins her research and comes to her initial conclusion. The meticulous attention to the contents of Braithwaite’s books calls their actual existence into question. The matryoshka-style layering of narratives, each dependent on the other, is engaging and disorienting.

Case Study is an immersive novel that stretches its fiction to fact-like proportions.

Reviewed by Dontaná McPherson-Joseph November / December 2022

Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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Case Study Kindle Edition

Shortlisted for the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize • Shortlisted for the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards • Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize • Longlisted for the 2022 HWA Gold Crown Award • Longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award

SELECTED BY NEW YORK TIMES AS ONE OF 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2022

The Booker-shortlisted author of His Bloody Project  blurs the lines between patient and therapist, fiction and documentation, and reality and dark imagination. 

London, 1965. 'I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger,' writes an anonymous patient, a young woman investigating her sister's suicide. In the guise of a dynamic and troubled alter-ego named Rebecca Smyth, she makes an appointment with the notorious and roughly charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite, whom she believes is responsible for her sister's death. But in this world of beguilement and bamboozlement, neither she nor we can be certain of anything.

Case Study is a novel as slippery as it is riveting, as playful as it is sinister, a meditation on truth, sanity, and the instability of identity by one of the most inventive novelists of our time.

• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Biblioasis
• Publication date November 1, 2022
• File size 1290 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
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Praise for  Case Study

" Case Study has a lot in common with the novels of Vladimir Nabokov and Roberto Bolaño, in which invented characters pass through tumultuous episodes of literary history that never quite happened, though it seems as if they should have ... Case Study is a diverting novel, overflowing with clever plays on and inversions of tropes of English intellectual and social life during the postwar decades." —New York Times

"A mystery story—or is it?—that takes us into the heart of the psychoanalytical consulting room. Or does it? Interleaving a biography of radical '60s 'untherapist' Collins Braithwaite with the notebooks of his patient 'Rebecca', a young woman seeking answers about the death of her sister, 'GMB' presents a forensic, elusive and mordantly funny text(s) layered with questions about authenticity and the self." —2022 Booker Prize Jury Statement

"A twisting and often wickedly humorous work of crime fiction that meditates on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself." —Gordon Burn Prize Jury Citation

"With its layers of imposture and unreliability, the novel suggests that our personhood is far more malleable than we believe." —New Yorker

"The parallel tracks of Case Study are deeply satisfying because they encompass a sense of how we live day-by-day in doubt, often unaware of our own motivations." —NY Sun

"Macrae's novel works on various levels. It is an elaborate, mind-bending guessing game; it is a blackly comic and quietly moving study of a nervous breakdown; and it is a captivating portrait of an egomaniac ... Macrae has reliably delivered another work of fiendish fun." —Star Tribune

"Burnet is the ultimate unreliable narrator, and Case Study serves as a worthy addition to his oeuvre." —Chicago Review of Books

"The fictional author and Burnet share the same initials, which should be a clue as to how close the book will come to breaking the fourth wall ... The matryoshka-style layering of narratives, each dependent on the other, is engaging and disorienting. Case Study is an immersive novel that stretches its fiction to fact-like proportions." —Foreword Reviews (starred review)

" Case Study is a dizzying dive into British counterculture of the 1960s and the radical anti-psychiatry movement ... wildly inventive and slickly written. The notebooks feel so casually and authentically from the period, with 'Rebecca’s' word choices and the details she includes saying as much about 1960s British society as they do about her place in it. 'Rebecca' is deliciously unreliable as a narrator." —Jessica Brockmole, Historical Novels Review (Editors' Choice)

"Darkly funny and, at times, deeply weird, Case Study is a dense, complicated, singular work of meta-fiction. It asks deep and important questions without ever shoving them down your throat. Most importantly, though, it tells an interesting and engaging story—three of them, in fact. It’s a ride well worth taking, even if it is sometimes quiet and subtle. Case Study is well-deserving of its praise." —Spectrum Culture

"Ironical, intelligent and intriguing from first page to last, the fourth novel from Glasgow-based Graeme Macrae Burnet ... questions the tricky nature of identity." —Winnipeg Free Press

"Burnet evokes a place and an era very nicely, in pitch-perfect prose ... Case Study is an artfully twisted and presented fiction about identity and the stories we tell, and a wonderful evocation of 1960s London." —Complete Review

"Burnet weaves together 'found' documents and the biography of a controversial psychologist to create an indelible portrait of a power struggle in 1960s London." —Vol 1. Brooklyn

" Case Study reflects on relationships of power: the physical power of abusive men over women, the lingering power of memory over oneself." —The Michigan Daily

"It is a truly riveting novel, entertaining as it makes you question everything about it, and beautifully written. There are no wasted words in this book." —Miramichi Reader

"What decidedly it is is an enticing piece of metafiction that is impossible to put down, but not because it offers generated tension that is happily released when order and safety are restored. Instead it tempts us down one fascinating path after another without promising or providing any solutions." —Reviewing the Evidence

"A provocative send-up of midcentury British mores and the roots of modern psychotherapy … brisk and engaging." —Kirkus

"Burnet's deployment of multiple narrative structures, his finely tuned depiction of Braithwaite, and the fascinating revelations of the diarist result in an unforgettable story, one that will rattle readers long after its startling, disorientating ending." —Shelf Awareness

“Encourages us to look more closely at the inherent instability of fiction itself … genuinely affecting … a very funny book.” —Nina Allan, The Guardian

"Burnet propels readers through the novel with his fierce, hilarious intelligence." —Crime Reads

“Brilliant, bamboozling … Burnet captures his characters’ voices so brilliantly that what might have been just an intellectual game feels burstingly alive and engaging.” —Telegraph

“A riveting psychological plot ... tortuous, cunning ... clever. ” —Times Literary Supplement

“Burnet’s triumph is that it’s a page-turning blast, funny, sinister and perfectly plotted so as to reveal—or withhold—its secrets in a consistently satisfying way … Rarely has being constantly wrong-footed been so much fun.” —The Times

“Such is Burnet’s skill that he immediately convinces the reader that everything he is about to say is based on historical fact … brilliantly depicted … intriguing … compulsive reading.” —Irish Times

“You’ll be completely beguiled by this sly, darkly comic offering, with its unreliable narrator and its equally unreliable author.” —Mail on Sunday

“What’s real and what’s not is beside the point in this skillful portrait of a disturbed woman and her encounters with an experimental 1960s psychotherapist … Both strands quickly become compelling … I was hooked like a fish.” —Spectator

"Macrae Burnett has created a dynamic work that has excellent characterisation with acute observation. The writing is layered but there is no use of superfluous words. While the themes are profound, the style is both intriguing and playful. He has created a book that is thought provoking and a compulsive read." —Limerick City and County Libraries, Ireland

Praise for Graeme Macrae Burnet's His Bloody Project

"It’s only a story—or is it? Graeme Macrae Burnet makes such masterly use of the narrative form that the horrifying tale he tells in His Bloody Project ...  seems plucked straight out of Scotland’s sanguinary historical archives.”

—New York Times Book Review

“Both a horrific tale of violence and a rumination on the societal problems for poor sharecroppers of the era.” —TIME

“[A] powerful, absorbing novel … Authors from Henry James to Vladimir Nabokov to Gillian Flynn have used [an unreliable narrator] to induce ambiguity, heighten suspense and fold an alternative story between the lines of a printed text. Mr. Burnet, a Glasgow author, does all of that and more in this page-turning period account of pathos and violence in 19th-century Scotland … [A] cleverly constructed tale … Has the lineaments of the crime thriller but some of the sociology of a Thomas Hardy novel.” —Wall Street Journal

“Recalls William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner in the way it portrays an abused people and makes the ensuing violence understandable … His Bloody Project shows that the power held by landowners and overseers allowed cruelties just like those suffered by the Virginia slaves in Confessions . Halfway between a thriller and a sociological study of an exploitive economic system with eerie echoes to our own time, His Bloody Project is a gripping and relevant read.” —Newsweek

“A thriller with a fine literary pedigree ... His Bloody Project offers an intricate, interactive puzzle, a crime novel written, excuse my British, bloody well.” —Los Angeles Times

From the Back Cover

The Booker-shortlisted author of His Bloody Project blurs the lines between patient and therapist, fiction and documentation, and reality and dark imagination.

About the Author

Excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved..

The First Notebook

I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger, and if proved to be right (a rare occurrence admittedly), this notebook might serve as some kind of evidence.

Regrettably, as will become clear, I have little talent for com­position. As I read over my previous sentence I do rather cringe, but if I dilly-dally over style I fear I will never get anywhere. Miss Lyle, my English mistress, used to chide me for trying to cram too many thoughts into a single sentence. This, she said, was a sign of a disorderly mind. ‘You must first decide what it is you wish to say, then express it in the plainest terms.’ That was her mantra, and though it is doubtless a good one, I can see that I have already failed. I have said that I may be putting myself in danger, but there I go, off on an irrelevant digression. Rather than beginning again, however, I shall press on. What matters here is substance rather than style; that these pages constitute a record of what is to occur. It may be that were my narrative too polished, it might lack credibility; that somehow the ring of truth lies in infelicity. In any case, I cannot follow Miss Lyle’s advice, as I do not yet know what it is I wish to say. However, for the sake of anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves reading this, I will endeavour to be clear: to express myself in the plainest terms.

In this spirit, I shall begin by stating the facts. The danger to which I have alluded comes in the person of Collins Braithwaite. You will have heard him described in the press as ‘Britain’s most dangerous man’, this on account of his ideas about psychiatry. It is my belief, however, that it is not merely his ideas that are dangerous. I am convinced, you see, that Dr Braithwaite killed my sister, Veronica. I do not mean that he murdered her in the normal sense of the word, but that he is, nonetheless, as respon­sible for her death as if he had strangled her with his bare hands. Two years ago, Veronica threw herself from the overpass at Bridge Approach in Camden and was killed by the 4.45 to High Barnet. You could hardly imagine a person less likely to commit such an act. She was twenty-six years old, intelligent, successful and passably attractive. Regardless of this, she had, unbeknown to my father and me, been consulting Dr Braithwaite for some weeks. This I know from his own account.

Like most people in England I was familiar with Dr Braithwaite’s uncouth Northern drawl long before I encountered him in person. I had heard him speaking on the wireless, and had even once seen him on television. The programme was a discussion of psychiatry hosted by Joan Bakewell.* Braithwaite’s appearance was no more attractive than his voice. He wore an open-necked shirt and no jacket. His hair, which reached to his collar, was dishevelled, and he smoked constantly. His features were large, as if they had been exaggerated by a caricaturist, but there was something, even on television, that drew one’s eyes to him. I was only vaguely aware of the other guests in the studio. I remember less of what he actually said than his manner of delivering it. He had the air of a man to whom it would be futile to offer resistance. He spoke with a weary authority, as if tired of explaining himself to his inferiors. The participants were seated in a semi-circle with Miss Bakewell in the centre. While the others sat up straight, as if attending church, Dr Braithwaite slouched in his seat like a bored schoolboy, his chin slumped on the palm of his hand. He appeared to regard the other contribu­tors with a mixture of contempt and boredom. Towards the end of the programme, he gathered up his smoking materials and walked off the set, muttering an expletive that there is no need to repeat here. Miss Bakewell was taken aback, but quickly recov­ered her composure and remarked that it was an admission of the poverty of her guest’s ideas that he was unwilling to engage in debate with his peers.

The following day’s newspapers were filled with condemna­tion of Dr Braithwaite’s behaviour: he was the embodiment of everything that was wrong with modern Britain; his books were filled with the most obscene ideas and displayed the basest view of human nature. Naturally, the following day I visited Foyle’s during my lunch hour and asked for a copy of his most recent book, which laboured under the unappealing title of Untherapy . The cashier handled the volume as though it carried the danger of infection, and gave me a disapproving look I had not expe­rienced since I acquired a copy of Mr Lawrence’s disreputable novel. My purchase remained under wraps until I was safely ensconced in my room after supper that night.

I should say that, prior to this, my knowledge of psychiatry was exclusively derived from those scenes in films in which a patient reclines on a settee and recounts her dreams to a bearded physician with a Germanic accent. Perhaps for this reason, I found the opening part of Untherapy difficult to follow. It was full of unfamiliar words, and the sentences were so long and convoluted that the author would have benefited from follow­ing Miss Lyle’s advice. The only thing I gleaned from the intro­duction was that Braithwaite had not even wanted to write this book in the first place. His ‘visitors’, as he called them, were individuals, not ‘case studies’ to be paraded like sideshow freaks. If he now set out these stories, it was for the sole purpose of defending his ideas against the scorn poured on them by the Establishment (a word he used a great deal). He declared him­self to be ‘an untherapist’: his task was to convince people that they did not need therapy; his mission was to bring down the ‘jerry-built edifice’ of psychiatry. This struck me as a most pecu­liar position to adopt, but, as I have said, I am not well versed in the topic. The book, he wrote, could be seen as a companion to his previous work, and consisted of a series of narratives based on relationships he had entered into with troubled individuals. Naturally, the names and certain identifying details had been changed, but the fundamentals of each story were, he insisted, true.

Having got past the baffling opening section, I found these stories frightfully compelling. I suppose there is something reassuring about reading about those duds who make one’s own eccentricities pale by comparison. By the time I was half­way through I felt positively normal. It was only when I came to the penultimate chapter that I found myself reading about Veronica. The most sensible thing, I think, is simply to insert these pages here:

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09XY5495P
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Biblioasis (November 1, 2022)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 1, 2022
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1290 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• #741 in Psychological Literary Fiction
• #2,328 in Historical Literary Fiction
• #2,614 in Psychological Fiction (Kindle Store)

About the author

Graeme macrae burnet.

Graeme Macrae Burnet is the author of the 'fiendishly readable' His Bloody Project, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Awards. It won the Saltire Prize for Fiction and has been published to great acclaim in twenty languages around the world.

His 2021 novel Case Study was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Ned Kelly International Crime Prize and Gordon Burn Prize. Hannah Kent (Burial Rites) called it 'a novel of mind-bending brilliance.'

He is also the author of a trilogy of novels set in the small French town of Saint-Louis and featuring detective Georges Gorski: The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau (2014) and The Accident on the A35 (2017) and A Case of Matricide (October 2024).

"If Roland Barthes had written a detective novel, this would be it," was the Literary Review's verdict on The Accident on the A35

Born and brought up in Kilmarnock in the west of Scotland, Graeme now lives in Glasgow.

You can find him on twitter at @GMacraeBurnet.

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A Book Review: Case Study Research and Applications

2023, Beyond Words

This recently published book might add to our understanding of conducting case study research and eventually writing a high-quality case study paper. In general, chapter one defines a case study and when and why a researcher needs to conduct that study. Chapter two suggests ways to formulate a research question, select a case, and ensure rigor for the research. Chapters three and four similarly discuss various data collection procedures and why those procedures need to be done. Chapter five presents practical strategies to do quality data analysis. The last chapter is about tips to report a case study research. Readable vocabulary and supporting figures should help readers (e.g., novice researchers, college or graduate students, and teachers) easily comprehend the persuasive information presented in those six chapters.

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Writing a Case Study

• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Executive Summary
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Reading Research Effectively
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• What Is Scholarly vs. Popular?
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Annotated Bibliography
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Essays
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Bibliography

The term case study refers to both a method of analysis and a specific research design for examining a problem, both of which are used in most circumstances to generalize across populations. This tab focuses on the latter--how to design and organize a research paper in the social sciences that analyzes a specific case.

A case study research paper examines a person, place, event, phenomenon, or other type of subject of analysis in order to extrapolate  key themes and results that help predict future trends, illuminate previously hidden issues that can be applied to practice, and/or provide a means for understanding an important research problem with greater clarity. A case study paper usually examines a single subject of analysis, but case study papers can also be designed as a comparative investigation that shows relationships between two or among more than two subjects. The methods used to study a case can rest within a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method investigative paradigm.

Case Studies . Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010 ; “What is a Case Study?” In Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London: SAGE, 2010.

How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper

General information about how to choose a topic to investigate can be found under the " Choosing a Research Problem " tab in this writing guide. Review this page because it may help you identify a subject of analysis that can be investigated using a single case study design.

However, identifying a case to investigate involves more than choosing the research problem . A case study encompasses a problem contextualized around the application of in-depth analysis, interpretation, and discussion, often resulting in specific recommendations for action or for improving existing conditions. As Seawright and Gerring note, practical considerations such as time and access to information can influence case selection, but these issues should not be the sole factors used in describing the methodological justification for identifying a particular case to study. Given this, selecting a case includes considering the following:

• Does the case represent an unusual or atypical example of a research problem that requires more in-depth analysis? Cases often represent a topic that rests on the fringes of prior investigations because the case may provide new ways of understanding the research problem. For example, if the research problem is to identify strategies to improve policies that support girl's access to secondary education in predominantly Muslim nations, you could consider using Azerbaijan as a case study rather than selecting a more obvious nation in the Middle East. Doing so may reveal important new insights into recommending how governments in other predominantly Muslim nations can formulate policies that support improved access to education for girls.
• Does the case provide important insight or illuminate a previously hidden problem? In-depth analysis of a case can be based on the hypothesis that the case study will reveal trends or issues that have not been exposed in prior research or will reveal new and important implications for practice. For example, anecdotal evidence may suggest drug use among homeless veterans is related to their patterns of travel throughout the day. Assuming prior studies have not looked at individual travel choices as a way to study access to illicit drug use, a case study that observes a homeless veteran could reveal how issues of personal mobility choices facilitate regular access to illicit drugs. Note that it is important to conduct a thorough literature review to ensure that your assumption about the need to reveal new insights or previously hidden problems is valid and evidence-based.
• Does the case challenge and offer a counter-point to prevailing assumptions? Over time, research on any given topic can fall into a trap of developing assumptions based on outdated studies that are still applied to new or changing conditions or the idea that something should simply be accepted as "common sense," even though the issue has not been thoroughly tested in practice. A case may offer you an opportunity to gather evidence that challenges prevailing assumptions about a research problem and provide a new set of recommendations applied to practice that have not been tested previously. For example, perhaps there has been a long practice among scholars to apply a particular theory in explaining the relationship between two subjects of analysis. Your case could challenge this assumption by applying an innovative theoretical framework [perhaps borrowed from another discipline] to the study a case in order to explore whether this approach offers new ways of understanding the research problem. Taking a contrarian stance is one of the most important ways that new knowledge and understanding develops from existing literature.
• Does the case provide an opportunity to pursue action leading to the resolution of a problem? Another way to think about choosing a case to study is to consider how the results from investigating a particular case may result in findings that reveal ways in which to resolve an existing or emerging problem. For example, studying the case of an unforeseen incident, such as a fatal accident at a railroad crossing, can reveal hidden issues that could be applied to preventative measures that contribute to reducing the chance of accidents in the future. In this example, a case study investigating the accident could lead to a better understanding of where to strategically locate additional signals at other railroad crossings in order to better warn drivers of an approaching train, particularly when visibility is hindered by heavy rain, fog, or at night.
• Does the case offer a new direction in future research? A case study can be used as a tool for exploratory research that points to a need for further examination of the research problem. A case can be used when there are few studies that help predict an outcome or that establish a clear understanding about how best to proceed in addressing a problem. For example, after conducting a thorough literature review [very important!], you discover that little research exists showing the ways in which women contribute to promoting water conservation in rural communities of Uganda. A case study of how women contribute to saving water in a particular village can lay the foundation for understanding the need for more thorough research that documents how women in their roles as cooks and family caregivers think about water as a valuable resource within their community throughout rural regions of east Africa. The case could also point to the need for scholars to apply feminist theories of work and family to the issue of water conservation.

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. “Building Theories from Case Study Research.” Academy of Management Review 14 (October 1989): 532-550; Emmel, Nick. Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research: A Realist Approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013; Gerring, John. “What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?” American Political Science Review 98 (May 2004): 341-354; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Seawright, Jason and John Gerring. "Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research." Political Research Quarterly 61 (June 2008): 294-308.

Structure and Writing Style

The purpose of a paper in the social sciences designed around a case study is to thoroughly investigate a subject of analysis in order to reveal a new understanding about the research problem and, in so doing, contributing new knowledge to what is already known from previous studies. In applied social sciences disciplines [e.g., education, social work, public administration, etc.], case studies may also be used to reveal best practices, highlight key programs, or investigate interesting aspects of professional work. In general, the structure of a case study research paper is not all that different from a standard college-level research paper. However, there are subtle differences you should be aware of. Here are the key elements to organizing and writing a case study research paper.

I.  Introduction

As with any research paper, your introduction should serve as a roadmap for your readers to ascertain the scope and purpose of your study . The introduction to a case study research paper, however, should not only describe the research problem and its significance, but you should also succinctly describe why the case is being used and how it relates to addressing the problem. The two elements should be linked. With this in mind, a good introduction answers these four questions:

• What was I studying? Describe the research problem and describe the subject of analysis you have chosen to address the problem. Explain how they are linked and what elements of the case will help to expand knowledge and understanding about the problem.
• Why was this topic important to investigate? Describe the significance of the research problem and state why a case study design and the subject of analysis that the paper is designed around is appropriate in addressing the problem.
• What did we know about this topic before I did this study? Provide background that helps lead the reader into the more in-depth literature review to follow. If applicable, summarize prior case study research applied to the research problem and why it fails to adequately address the research problem. Describe why your case will be useful. If no prior case studies have been used to address the research problem, explain why you have selected this subject of analysis.
• How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of understanding? Explain why your case study will be suitable in helping to expand knowledge and understanding about the research problem.

Each of these questions should be addressed in no more than a few paragraphs. Exceptions to this can be when you are addressing a complex research problem or subject of analysis that requires more in-depth background information.

II.  Literature Review

The literature review for a case study research paper is generally structured the same as it is for any college-level research paper. The difference, however, is that the literature review is focused on providing background information and  enabling historical interpretation of the subject of analysis in relation to the research problem the case is intended to address . This includes synthesizing studies that help to:

• Place relevant works in the context of their contribution to understanding the case study being investigated . This would include summarizing studies that have used a similar subject of analysis to investigate the research problem. If there is literature using the same or a very similar case to study, you need to explain why duplicating past research is important [e.g., conditions have changed; prior studies were conducted long ago, etc.].
• Describe the relationship each work has to the others under consideration that informs the reader why this case is applicable . Your literature review should include a description of any works that support using the case to study the research problem and the underlying research questions.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research using the case study . If applicable, review any research that has examined the research problem using a different research design. Explain how your case study design may reveal new knowledge or a new perspective or that can redirect research in an important new direction.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies . This refers to synthesizing any literature that points to unresolved issues of concern about the research problem and describing how the subject of analysis that forms the case study can help resolve these existing contradictions.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research . Your review should examine any literature that lays a foundation for understanding why your case study design and the subject of analysis around which you have designed your study may reveal a new way of approaching the research problem or offer a perspective that points to the need for additional research.
• Expose any gaps that exist in the literature that the case study could help to fill . Summarize any literature that not only shows how your subject of analysis contributes to understanding the research problem, but how your case contributes to a new way of understanding the problem that prior research has failed to do.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important!] . Collectively, your literature review should always place your case study within the larger domain of prior research about the problem. The overarching purpose of reviewing pertinent literature in a case study paper is to demonstrate that you have thoroughly identified and synthesized prior studies in the context of explaining the relevance of the case in addressing the research problem.

III.  Method

In this section, you explain why you selected a particular subject of analysis to study and the strategy you used to identify and ultimately decide that your case was appropriate in addressing the research problem. The way you describe the methods used varies depending on the type of subject of analysis that frames your case study.

If your subject of analysis is an incident or event . In the social and behavioral sciences, the event or incident that represents the case to be studied is usually bounded by time and place, with a clear beginning and end and with an identifiable location or position relative to its surroundings. The subject of analysis can be a rare or critical event or it can focus on a typical or regular event. The purpose of studying a rare event is to illuminate new ways of thinking about the broader research problem or to test a hypothesis. Critical incident case studies must describe the method by which you identified the event and explain the process by which you determined the validity of this case to inform broader perspectives about the research problem or to reveal new findings. However, the event does not have to be a rare or uniquely significant to support new thinking about the research problem or to challenge an existing hypothesis. For example, Walo, Bull, and Breen conducted a case study to identify and evaluate the direct and indirect economic benefits and costs of a local sports event in the City of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of their study was to provide new insights from measuring the impact of a typical local sports event that prior studies could not measure well because they focused on large "mega-events." Whether the event is rare or not, the methods section should include an explanation of the following characteristics of the event: a) when did it take place; b) what were the underlying circumstances leading to the event; c) what were the consequences of the event.

If your subject of analysis is a person. Explain why you selected this particular individual to be studied and describe what experience he or she has had that provides an opportunity to advance new understandings about the research problem. Mention any background about this person which might help the reader understand the significance of his/her experiences that make them worthy of study. This includes describing the relationships this person has had with other people, institutions, and/or events that support using him or her as the subject for a case study research paper. It is particularly important to differentiate the person as the subject of analysis from others and to succinctly explain how the person relates to examining the research problem.

If your subject of analysis is a place. In general, a case study that investigates a place suggests a subject of analysis that is unique or special in some way and that this uniqueness can be used to build new understanding or knowledge about the research problem. A case study of a place must not only describe its various attributes relevant to the research problem [e.g., physical, social, cultural, economic, political, etc.], but you must state the method by which you determined that this place will illuminate new understandings about the research problem. It is also important to articulate why a particular place as the case for study is being used if similar places also exist [i.e., if you are studying patterns of homeless encampments of veterans in open spaces, why study Echo Park in Los Angeles rather than Griffith Park?]. If applicable, describe what type of human activity involving this place makes it a good choice to study [e.g., prior research reveals Echo Park has more homeless veterans].

If your subject of analysis is a phenomenon. A phenomenon refers to a fact, occurrence, or circumstance that can be studied or observed but with the cause or explanation to be in question. In this sense, a phenomenon that forms your subject of analysis can encompass anything that can be observed or presumed to exist but is not fully understood. In the social and behavioral sciences, the case usually focuses on human interaction within a complex physical, social, economic, cultural, or political system. For example, the phenomenon could be the observation that many vehicles used by ISIS fighters are small trucks with English language advertisements on them. The research problem could be that ISIS fighters are difficult to combat because they are highly mobile. The research questions could be how and by what means are these vehicles used by ISIS being supplied to the militants and how might supply lines to these vehicles be cut? How might knowing the suppliers of these trucks from overseas reveal larger networks of collaborators and financial support? A case study of a phenomenon most often encompasses an in-depth analysis of a cause and effect that is grounded in an interactive relationship between people and their environment in some way.

NOTE:   The choice of the case or set of cases to study cannot appear random. Evidence that supports the method by which you identified and chose your subject of analysis should be linked to the findings from the literature review. Be sure to cite any prior studies that helped you determine that the case you chose was appropriate for investigating the research problem.

IV.  Discussion

The main elements of your discussion section are generally the same as any research paper, but centered around interpreting and drawing conclusions about the key findings from your case study. Note that a general social sciences research paper may contain a separate section to report findings. However, in a paper designed around a case study, it is more common to combine a description of the findings with the discussion about their implications. The objectives of your discussion section should include the following:

Reiterate the Research Problem/State the Major Findings Briefly reiterate the research problem you are investigating and explain why the subject of analysis around which you designed the case study were used. You should then describe the findings revealed from your study of the case using direct, declarative, and succinct proclamation of the study results. Highlight any findings that were unexpected or especially profound.

Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why They are Important Systematically explain the meaning of your case study findings and why you believe they are important. Begin this part of the section by repeating what you consider to be your most important or surprising finding first, then systematically review each finding. Be sure to thoroughly extrapolate what your analysis of the case can tell the reader about situations or conditions beyond the actual case that was studied while, at the same time, being careful not to misconstrue or conflate a finding that undermines the external validity of your conclusions.

Relate the Findings to Similar Studies No study in the social sciences is so novel or possesses such a restricted focus that it has absolutely no relation to previously published research. The discussion section should relate your case study results to those found in other studies, particularly if questions raised from prior studies served as the motivation for choosing your subject of analysis. This is important because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps to support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your case study design and the subject of analysis differs from prior research about the topic.

Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings It is important to remember that the purpose of social science research is to discover and not to prove. When writing the discussion section, you should carefully consider all possible explanations for the case study results, rather than just those that fit your hypothesis or prior assumptions and biases. Be alert to what the in-depth analysis of the case may reveal about the research problem, including offering a contrarian perspective to what scholars have stated in prior research.

Acknowledge the Study's Limitations You can state the study's limitations in the conclusion section of your paper but describing the limitations of your subject of analysis in the discussion section provides an opportunity to identify the limitations and explain why they are not significant. This part of the discussion section should also note any unanswered questions or issues your case study could not address. More detailed information about how to document any limitations to your research can be found here .

Suggest Areas for Further Research Although your case study may offer important insights about the research problem, there are likely additional questions related to the problem that remain unanswered or findings that unexpectedly revealed themselves as a result of your in-depth analysis of the case. Be sure that the recommendations for further research are linked to the research problem and that you explain why your recommendations are valid in other contexts and based on the original assumptions of your study.

V.  Conclusion

As with any research paper, you should summarize your conclusion in clear, simple language; emphasize how the findings from your case study differs from or supports prior research and why. Do not simply reiterate the discussion section. Provide a synthesis of key findings presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem. If you haven't already done so in the discussion section, be sure to document the limitations of your case study and needs for further research.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to: 1)  restate the main argument supported by the findings from the analysis of your case; 2) clearly state the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem using a case study design in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found from reviewing the literature; and, 3) provide a place for you to persuasively and succinctly restate the significance of your research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with in-depth information about the topic.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize these points for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the conclusion of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration of the case study's findings that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from your case study findings.

Note that, depending on the discipline you are writing in and your professor's preferences, the concluding paragraph may contain your final reflections on the evidence presented applied to practice or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the subject of analysis you have investigated will depend on whether you are explicitly asked to express your observations in this way.

Problems to Avoid

Overgeneralization One of the goals of a case study is to lay a foundation for understanding broader trends and issues applied to similar circumstances. However, be careful when drawing conclusions from your case study. They must be evidence-based and grounded in the results of the study; otherwise, it is merely speculation. Looking at a prior example, it would be incorrect to state that a factor in improving girls access to education in Azerbaijan and the policy implications this may have for improving access in other Muslim nations is due to girls access to social media if there is no documentary evidence from your case study to indicate this. There may be anecdotal evidence that retention rates were better for girls who were on social media, but this observation would only point to the need for further research and would not be a definitive finding if this was not a part of your original research agenda.

Failure to Document Limitations No case is going to reveal all that needs to be understood about a research problem. Therefore, just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study , you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis. For example, the case of studying how women conceptualize the need for water conservation in a village in Uganda could have limited application in other cultural contexts or in areas where fresh water from rivers or lakes is plentiful and, therefore, conservation is understood differently than preserving access to a scarce resource.

Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings. If you do not, your reader may question the validity of your analysis, particularly if you failed to document an obvious outcome from your case study research. For example, in the case of studying the accident at the railroad crossing to evaluate where and what types of warning signals should be located, you failed to take into consideration speed limit signage as well as warning signals. When designing your case study, be sure you have thoroughly addressed all aspects of the problem and do not leave gaps in your analysis.

Case Studies . Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Gerring, John. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Merriam, Sharan B. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education . Rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998; Miller, Lisa L. “The Use of Case Studies in Law and Social Science Research.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14 (2018): TBD; Mills, Albert J., Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Putney, LeAnn Grogan. "Case Study." In Encyclopedia of Research Design , Neil J. Salkind, editor. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010), pp. 116-120; Simons, Helen. Case Study Research in Practice . London: SAGE Publications, 2009;  Kratochwill,  Thomas R. and Joel R. Levin, editors. Single-Case Research Design and Analysis: New Development for Psychology and Education .  Hilldsale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992; Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London : SAGE, 2010; Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . 6th edition. Los Angeles, CA, SAGE Publications, 2014; Walo, Maree, Adrian Bull, and Helen Breen. “Achieving Economic Benefits at Local Events: A Case Study of a Local Sports Event.” Festival Management and Event Tourism 4 (1996): 95-106.

Writing Tip

At Least Five Misconceptions about Case Study Research

Social science case studies are often perceived as limited in their ability to create new knowledge because they are not randomly selected and findings cannot be generalized to larger populations. Flyvbjerg examines five misunderstandings about case study research and systematically "corrects" each one. To quote, these are:

Misunderstanding 1 :  General, theoretical [context-independent knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical (context-dependent) knowledge. Misunderstanding 2 :  One cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case; therefore, the case study cannot contribute to scientific development. Misunderstanding 3 :  The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses; that is, in the first stage of a total research process, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building. Misunderstanding 4 :  The case study contains a bias toward verification, that is, a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions. Misunderstanding 5 :  It is often difficult to summarize and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of specific case studies [p. 221].

While writing your paper, think introspectively about how you addressed these misconceptions because to do so can help you strengthen the validity and reliability of your research by clarifying issues of case selection, the testing and challenging of existing assumptions, the interpretation of key findings, and the summation of case outcomes. Think of a case study research paper as a complete, in-depth narrative about the specific properties and key characteristics of your subject of analysis applied to the research problem.

Flyvbjerg, Bent. “Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12 (April 2006): 219-245.

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How to... Review a journal, case study or book proposal

Our reviewers play a crucial role in the publication process with a wide range of responsibilities. We have developed some reviewer guidelines to support you at each stage of the process.

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Before you review, respond to your review request, review the manuscript, make your recommendation.

You will receive an email inviting you to review for a journal, case study or book proposal with the option to accept or decline.

Here are some things to think about before you make your decision...

Journal editors are looking for reviews that are thorough and specific. If you are unsure whether you have the capacity to deliver that level of quality, you can always recommend a colleague who has more free time. If you might like to review for the journal when you are less busy, don’t forget to let the editor know.

The editor may not be familiar with the finer details of your work, so you are best placed to judge whether you have the expertise required. To help the editor match you with the right paper, please keep your ScholarOne accounts up to date with relevant keywords and institutional details.

If an editor asks you to carry out a review, it’s a good idea to respond confirming you’ve received their request, even if you are unsure yet whether you will accept. The period of time allocated for the review will vary per journal and the editor will inform you of the time-frame when they invite you. 

Conflicts of interest

Fully disclose any potential conflict of interest; it won’t necessarily eliminate you but will help the editorial team make an informed decision, for example:

• Working in the same department/institute as an author
• Having co-written with an author in the past
• Professional or financial connections to the research

You can accept or decline your review request from your invite email. For journals and case studies, the manuscript or case will be sent to your reviewer centre on our editorial system, which you can access directly from your email.

You will be asked detailed questions to encourage you to consider all aspects of the manuscript. For journals and case studies, you will complete the fields on the Review and Score tab in the reviewer centre on ScholarOne. Although the questions may vary depending on the journal or publication, we have highlighted some areas for consideration.

As a reviewer, you are not responsible for spotting ethics issues in manuscripts but with your knowledge and expertise, you are often best placed to spot cases of fraud, plagiarism or possible defamation/libel. If you have reason to suspect ethical misconduct – either deliberate or accidental – please let the publisher or the editor know as soon as possible. You can find out more about the types of publishing issues you might encounter on our research and publication ethics guidelines page.

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Originality

Does the article say something new and interesting? Does it add to the body of knowledge? Is the research question an important one? How does the manuscript compare to the most highly-cited or downloaded papers in the field? Tools such as Web of Science or Scopus can help answer these questions. If the research has been covered previously, forward any relevant references to the editor.

Layout and format

Each journal’s author guidelines contain instructions on manuscript presentation and authors are expected to follow these closely. If they don’t, and the editor hasn’t mentioned the omission in their invitation to review, you should flag the issue with the editor or highlight it in your review report. If the paper is particularly original or interesting, the editor may wait until they have decided to accept it before asking the author to reformat.

Does it clearly describe the article and include the most important keywords? (Consider how you search for research articles.) Does it demonstrate the significance of the research and make sense?

Structured abstract

Have all mandatory fields been completed? Does the abstract accurately reflect the content of the article?

Introduction

Does this describe what the author hoped to achieve and clearly articulate the research question? Has the author provided a summary of the current research literature to provide context? Is it clear how this is being challenged or built upon? Are there any important works that have been omitted?

Methodology

Does the author accurately explain how the data was collected? Is the design suitable for answering the question posed? Does the article outline the procedures followed? If the methods are new, are they explained in detail? Is there sufficient information available for you to replicate the research? Was the sampling appropriate? Have the equipment and materials been adequately described? Does the article make it clear what type of data was recorded; has the author been precise in describing measurements?

These should be checked carefully – errors are common.

This is where the author should explain their findings. Are results presented clearly? You should consider the merits and appropriateness of the author’s analysis.

Conclusion/discussion

Are the claims in this section reasonable and supported by the results? Are the findings consistent with the author’s expectations? Do the conclusions adequately tie together the other elements of the paper? Does the article support or contradict previous theories? Does the author explain how the research has added to the body of knowledge?

Graphics and tables

Where these are included, please check the contents and, if possible, make suggestions for improvements. Do the figures and tables inform the reader? Are they an important part of the story? Do the figures describe the data accurately? Are they presented consistently (e.g. in the same format throughout)?

Does poor use of English make it difficult to follow the author’s argument? If this is the case, it’s not up to you to edit the text.  Mention the problem in your review report and the editor may decide to refer the author to editing services, for example, Editage, a company we partner with.

Implications for research

Does the paper bridge the gap between theory and practice? How can the research be applied;

• In practice: What's the economic and commercial impact?
• In teaching?
• To influence public policy?
• In research: Does it contribute to the body of knowledge?
• For society: Is it influencing public attitudes or affecting quality of life?

Are these implications consistent with the findings and conclusions of the paper?

Quality of communication

Does the paper clearly express its case, measured against the technical language of the field and the expected knowledge of the journal’s readership? Has attention been paid to the clarity of expression and readability, such as sentence structure, jargon use, acronyms and so on?

You will make an overall recommendation to the editor or publisher to complete your review and they will take this into account when they make their decision. The most common recommendation criteria are:

• Minor revisions required
• Major revisions required

Minor revisions

This varies from journal to journal. However, minor revisions often require the author to make relatively small adjustments to the paper, which don’t take much time. They might be related to author guideline requirements, e.g. a slight reduction in word count; formatting changes, such as the labelling of tables or figures; further evidence of an understanding of the research literature in the field; or a slight elaboration on the research findings.

Major revisions

Major revisions often require the author to make more significant improvements, the type which take weeks or even months, rather than days. Authors may be asked to address flaws in the methodology; collect more data; conduct a more thorough analysis; or even adjust the research question to ensure the paper contributes something truly original to the body of work.

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Related topics, peer review process.

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Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet

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B+ : very fine writing; enjoyably spun tale

See our review for fuller assessment.

   From the Reviews : "Graeme Macrae Burnet’s barnstorming psychodrama, which successfully fuses mystery, comedy and a meditation on the nebulous nature of identity. (...) The musty north London milieu, with its chintzy tea rooms, cold park benches and sticky pubs, is brilliantly evoked. (...) Burnet’s greatest achievement, however, is making you care about a woman whose name you do not know, a doctor you don’t want to know and a story you can’t trust. Consistently inventive, caustically funny and surprisingly moving, this is one of the finest novels of the year." - Christian House, Financial Times "The painstakingly assembled, predominantly mimetic fiction of the 19th century has trained us to trust the author; Burnet has always delighted in undermining such easy assumptions, and in Case Study he ups the stakes still further, providing a veritable layer cake of possible realities to get lost in. (...) If Burnet’s aim in writing Case Study was to force us up against the contradictions of our conflicted selves, he has surely succeeded. This is a novel that is entertaining and mindfully engrossing in equal measure." - Nina Allan, The Guardian " Case Study has a lot in common with the novels of Vladimir Nabokov and Roberto Bolaño, in which invented characters pass through tumultuous episodes of literary history that never quite happened, though it seems as if they should have. (...) Case Study is a diverting novel, overflowing with clever plays on and inversions of tropes of English intellectual and social life during the postwar decades. As such, it is not exactly an excursion into undiscovered literary terrain. Reading Burnet’s doubly mediated metafiction of North London neurotics and decadents, I often longed to turn back to the shelf for the real thing: fictions by Doris Lessing, Kingsley and Martin Amis, Muriel Spark, Jenny Diski, Julian Barnes, Alan Hollinghurst, Zadie Smith or Rachel Cusk; biographies of Plath and Hughes; films of kitchen-sink realism starring Bogarde and Laurence Harvey, with scripts by Harold Pinter; or even the documentaries of Adam Curtis, in which Laing often makes a cameo." - Christian Lorentzen, The New York Times Book Review "It’s a book that is enormous fun to read, a mystery and a psychological drama wrapped up in one. Buoyed by the evident pleasure Macrae Burnet takes in spinning such a tightly knit tale -- the author’s note at the end is magnificent -- Case Study is a triumph" - Alex Preston, The Observer "The notebooks are interspersed with a biography of Braithwaite by Burnet, who tells us he has studied his books. Both strands quickly become compelling. (...) I was hooked like a fish." - Leyla Sanai, The Spectator "(T)ortuous, cunning and highly self-conscious (.....) Readers who equate self-referentiality with intellectual integrity, or who simply enjoy being toyed with, are in for a treat. (...) What is so clever about Burnet’s novel, and the source of much of its humour, is the introduction into this permissive environment of Rebecca, the mousey homebody who ends up outwitting the so-called genius. (...) Ultimately, what the author wants to show us is that, by pulling us into his tale, he can leave ink on our hands too." - Kate Webb, Times Literary Supplement Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

The complete review 's Review :

Writing something down invests it with a kind of significance, but in general things are of such little consequence, even to those involved, that the act of recording them is no more than vanity.

My diary, however, was a work of fiction. I constructed a character, much as any novelist would do, and all for the benefit of a single reader. It is not that what I wrote was untrue. At least as far as I can recall, these things did actually happen. It's just that, taken together, they create a false impression. The real truth lay not in what I wrote, but in what I omitted.

     The thing is, petal, it doesn't actually matter to me whether any of it actually happened. What matters is that this was the story you chose to tell.

Braithwaite takes as his starting point the idea that if one is going to talk about the self, one should begin by defining what one means. He quickly descends, however, into claiming that defining the self at all is a fraudulent act: the Self does not exist as an entity or a thing; if it exists at all, it is no more than a projection of the self (the book is full ofsuch paradoxes).

Everything you do is concealment. And it's not that you're concealing something from me. You're concealing it from yourself. You're buried under a landslide of fakery. The way you dress is fake. The way you speak is fake. Even the way you hold your cigarette is fake. You're a phoney.

Ever since I took up the habit, I have loved smoking more than anything. Smoking is a veil.

She leapt off and he had been left holding nothing but her shoe. That shoe, along with her other clothing and the contents of her handbag, were later returned to us. The second shoe was never recovered, but as her feet were two sizes larger than mine, I could not in any case have worn them.

All the needlepoint and pianoforte in the world cannot alter the fact that for most of us quiet despair is the best we can hope for.

- M.A.Orthofer , 11 September 2022

About the Author :

       Scottish author Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in 1967.

© 20222-2023 the complete review Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links

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Book Review: Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

• August 6, 2024
• No Comments
• Architecture , cities , imagination , invisible , Urban design

Introduction

• Cities & Memory
• Cities & Desire
• Cities & Signs
• Thin Cities
• Trading Cities
• Cities & Eyes
• Cities & Names
• Cities & The Dead
• Cities & The Sky
• Continuous Cities
• Hidden Cities

Source: Website Link

• Non-linear Narrative , in fact, it is fragmented and cyclical, mirroring the labyrinthine nature of the cities described;
• Dialogic Framework , with an ongoing dialogue that serves as both an anchor and a reflective commentary on the descriptions;
• Imaginative Descriptions , with vivid, poetic language, allowing to delve into abstract concepts and create a surreal, dream-like atmosphere;
• Thematic Clusters , allowing a focus explorations of specific ideas but also making the book both diverse in content and coherent in structure;
• Philosophical Depth , with a richness in philosophical musings on topics such as memory, desire, and the nature of human existence, often using the cities as allegories for these deeper reflections.

Architecture and Urbanism

Cities and Genius Loci

The Book as a Journey

Source: author

Gaps addressed by invisible cities.

• Human Experience  is important, in fact, Calvino offers a richer understanding of how people interact with and are affected by their environments;
• The book delves into the Symbolic and  Metaphorical dimensions of urban spaces, adding  meanings ;
• By presenting cities as constructs of memory and narrative, Calvino challenges the static, advocating for a more  Dynamic and  Multifaceted  understanding;
• The whimsical, diverse, and often paradoxical nature of Calvino’s cities provides a critique of modernist urban planning , which tends to prioritize uniformity and efficiency over cultural richness and individuality.

Living narratives inside and outside

SPACE, Memory, Identity

• Space  is both physical and conceptual and all the cities are a representation of different aspects of human life and thought. Calvino’s cities challenge the reader to see urban spaces as more than mere settings, they are dynamic landscapes that interact with their inhabitants.
• It can be seen in Zenobia , a city built on stilts, with houses, staircases and bridges above ground. Its unique spatial arrangement reflects the inhabitants’ desire for freedom and elevation above the mundane. Moreover, the vertical space in Zenobia symbolizes aspiration and a detachment from earthly concerns, suggesting that the way we shape our environment can reflect our innermost desires and values.
• Memory is another keyword in this book since it plays a crucial role in shaping the identity of cities in the whole narrative. Each city is a repository of the collective memories of its inhabitants, and these memories influence the city’s form and character. Architecture serves as a physical manifestation of memory, with buildings and streets acting as mnemonic devices that preserve and convey the past.
• For example,  Zaira  is a city where every building, every street and every object is tied to the memories of its citizens. Architecture is a palimpsest of historical events, personal stories, and cultural heritage. Here more than everywhere else. Calvino writes “ The city does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hang, written in the corners of the streets.” That’s why Zaira exemplifies how memory is embedded in the urban fabric, shaping the city’s identity and the experiences of its people.
• Identity in Invisible Cities is closely linked to the unique characteristics of each city. The identity of a city is not only defined by its physical attributes but also by the experiences and perceptions of its inhabitants. Calvino explores how the built environment influences and reflects the collective and individual identities of those who dwell within it.
• Maurilia is a city that lives in the tension between its past and present. Visitors are shown old postcards depicting the city as it once was, alongiside the contemporary cityscape. The juxtaposition highlights the changes over time and nostalgia for a lost identity. This reflects the idea that cities, like people, evolve and that their identities are fluid and shaped by the passage of time and collective memory.

Names of Cities Mentioned by Italo Calvino

• Diomira : A city of sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, and avenues paved with lead.
• Isidora : Known for its spiral staircases, crystal theater, and enticing visions of future desires.
• Zenobia : Built on stilts, with homes made of bamboo and zinc, a labyrinth of suspended pathways.
• Euphemia : A trade city where merchants gather to exchange stories and goods under large tents.
• Zobeide : A white city with high walls, designed by dreams, built by men chasing a recurring vision of a woman.
• Hypatia : A city of philosophers and scholars, known for its labyrinthine alleys and signs with hidden meanings.
• Armilla : A city of pipes and water, where no walls or ceilings exist, creating an open and fluid urban landscape.
• Sophronia : Comprised of two halves, one permanent with stone buildings and the other temporary with a circus.
• Octavia : The spider-web city, suspended over a void, connecting houses and pathways with ropes and chains.
• Ersilia : A city of strings, where inhabitants map out relationships by connecting buildings with colored threads.
• Eutropia : A network of cities, each identical but lived in differently, constantly rotated by its inhabitants.
• Zemrude : A city perceived differently depending on the observer’s mood, either as a ruin or a thriving place.
• Zaira : A city of memory, where every stone, corner, and alley retains the history and past lives of its residents.
• Maurilia : A city where postcards of its past are sold, inviting visitors to compare the old and the new.
• Esmeralda : A city of water and bridges, where canals and staircases create a complex, fluid network.
• Phyllis : Known for its vertical gardens and towers, where people live amidst lush greenery and flowing water.
• Leonia : A city that renews itself daily, disposing of yesterday’s goods and waste, always brand new.
• Olinda : A city that grows in concentric circles, each layer expanding like the rings of a tree.
• Argia : A city filled with earth, where residents move through tunnels and underground passages.
• Thekla : A city perpetually under construction, with scaffolding and cranes always present, symbolizing endless potential.

• https://www.archdaily.com/805442/italo-calvinos-invisible-cities-illustrated-again?ad_medium=gallery
• https://davidfleck.co.uk/invisible-cities
• https://uxdesign.cc/what-metaverse-platforms-can-learn-from-italo-calvinos-invisible-cities-dbebbe14d355
• https://matteopericoli.com/portfolio-item/invisible-cities/
• https://ekostories.com/2015/06/21/italo-calvino-invisible-cities/
• http://www.haigharchitects.com/invisible-cities/
• https://rowellbrokaw.com/blog/2018/10/2/mark-youngs-illustrations-and-nicola-fucignas-article-on-italo-calvinos-invisible-cities-featured-in-construction-literary-magazine
• https://karinapuente.com/
• https://medium.com/@pooja.tarun.patel/understanding-invisible-cities-with-authors-illustrations-for-each-and-every-city-3648e044279d
• https://www.collater.al/the-invisible-city-camille-benoit-mariana-gella-paper-art/

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Net Zero Energy Buildings Case Studies and Lessons Learned

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This book presents 18 in-depth case studies of net zero energy buildings—low-energy building that generate as much energy as they consume over the course of a year—for a range of project types, sizes, and U.S. climate zones. Each case study describes the owner’s goals, the design and construction process, design strategies, measurement and verification activities and results, and project costs. With a year or more of post-occupancy performance data and other project information, as well as lessons learned by project owners and developers, architects, engineers, energy modelers, constructors, and operators, each case study answers the questions: What were the challenges to achieving net zero energy performance, and how were these challenges overcome? How would stakeholders address these issues on future projects? Are the occupants satisfied with the building? Do they find it comfortable? Is it easy to operate? How can other projects benefit from the lessons learned on each project? What would the owners, designers, and constructors do differently knowing what they know now? A final chapter aggregates processes to engage in and pitfalls to avoid when approaching the challenges peculiar to designing, constructing, and owning a net zero energy building. By providing a wealth of comparable information, this book which will flatten the learning curve for designing, constructing, and owning this emerging building type and improve the effectiveness of architectural design and construction.

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Linda Reeder , FAIA, LEED AP is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering, Science and Technology of Central Connecticut State University. She practiced as an architect for more than a decade before becoming a professor in the Construction Management program. She has previously published a book and numerous articles on sustainable design and construction.

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Linda Reeder’s book comes along at an exciting time—building design professionals have committed to achieving net zero energy in their projects but need to know more about how to design for it. Reeder presents detailed case studies of projects that cover a range of building types, sizes and geographic locations, and all have been measured to perform at net zero energy or better. Her practical and readable study is a clear and solid contribution to the literature of change we need to build a clean energy future. Edward Mazria, Founder and CEO of Architecture 2030   Net Zero Energy Buildings provides a broad look at the current state of the net zero energy building movement. Linda Reeder highlights all the seminal early-21st-century net zero projects, from new large office buildings, historic retrofits, to K-12 schools across a range of climate zones in the US. Not only does Reeder provide 18 case studies to show cost effective and mainstream net zero projects in operations, but she also provides unique insights into common best practices critical for any owner or designer looking to go net zero in their next project. Shanti Pless, Senior Research Engineer, NREL   Net Zero Energy Buildings provides exactly the kind of information designers, builders, and building owners need today: detailed, technical information on how net-zero-energy performance is being achieved in state-of-the-art buildings. The 18 inspiring projects that Linda Reeder profiles here are reshaping our understanding of what is possible in creating green, sustainable buildings that will help us achieve a carbon-neutral future. This superb book adds immeasurably to the literature on net-zero-energy buildings. Alex Wilson, President, Resilient Design Institute   "…illustrates the potential for renewable energies integrated into building design as applicable to the building site climatic zone, and the solar, wind, and other temperature variables of typical US sites." Building Engineer , March 2017

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Gwinn M, Judson R, Thomas R, et al. A Proof-of-Concept Case Study Integrating Publicly Available Information to Screen Candidates for Chemical Prioritization under TSCA [Internet]. Washington (DC): U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; 2021 Jun.

A Proof-of-Concept Case Study Integrating Publicly Available Information to Screen Candidates for Chemical Prioritization under TSCA [Internet].

1 executive summary.

Regulatory agencies worldwide are looking to efficiently integrate information on chemical substances 1 in order to inform priorities for decisions and data requests. This document updates the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) long-term strategy described in the Working Approach for Identifying Potential Candidate Chemicals for Prioritization 2 and presents the Public Information Curation and Synthesis (PICS) approach that integrates publicly-available hazard, exposure, persistence, and bioaccumulation information for chemical substances. The purpose of the PICS approach is to synthesize information from traditional and new approach methods (NAMs) 3 to understand the overall degree of potential concern as well as the relative coverage of potentially relevant human health and ecological toxicity and exposure information that could inform level of effort and resources that may be needed to evaluate that specific chemical substance. The PICS approach is based on two dimensions. The first dimension, Scientific Domain Metric (SDM), encompasses the synthesis of the traditional and NAM data to understand the overall degree of potential concern related to human health and the environment. The second dimension, Information Availability Metric (IAM), reflects the relative coverage of potentially relevant human health and ecological toxicity and exposure information that could inform level of effort and resources that may be needed to evaluate that specific chemical substance. The PICS approach is not designed to replace the prioritization process described in TSCA but aims to increase efficiency and focus expert review on chemical substances that may have a greater potential for designation as a high- or low priority candidate. A proof-of-concept case study was performed by applying the PICS approach to a subset of the TSCA active inventory. The results demonstrate that the approach discriminated between high- and low priority candidate chemical substances and identified potential information gaps. The PICS approach may be applied to large numbers of chemical substances and is an important tool for efficiently integrating and synthesizing large amounts of publicly available information, and aspects of the approach could be adapted and applied to other prioritization decision contexts.

Unless otherwise indicated, any references to “chemical” or “chemical substance” throughout this document means a “chemical substance” as defined in TSCA Section 3(2).

https://www ​.epa.gov/sites ​/production/files ​/2018-09/documents ​/preprioritization_white_paper_9272018 ​.pdf

https://www ​.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca ​/alternative-test-methods-and-strategies-reduce The term NAMs was recently introduced to cover any in vitro, in silico, or in chemico technique used to provide data or information for regulatory decision making.

• Cite this Page Gwinn M, Judson R, Thomas R, et al. A Proof-of-Concept Case Study Integrating Publicly Available Information to Screen Candidates for Chemical Prioritization under TSCA [Internet]. Washington (DC): U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; 2021 Jun. 1, Executive Summary.
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The Natural History of Crime

Case studies in death and the clues nature leaves behind, by patricia wiltshire, narrated by charlotte strevens, you must sign in to see if this title is available for request. sign in or register now, send netgalley books directly to your kindle or kindle app, to read on a kindle or kindle app, please add [email protected] as an approved email address to receive files in your amazon account. click here for step-by-step instructions., also find your kindle email address within your amazon account, and enter it here., pub date aug 20 2024 | archive date aug 30 2024, dreamscape media, nonfiction (adult) | science | true crime.

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Description

AS SEEN IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, THE UK'S NO.1 FORENSIC ECOLOGIST LOOKS AT HER MOST HIGH-PROFILE AND INTERESTING CASES…

"I love puzzles, and finding answers is the only truly enjoyable part of what I do."

Professor Patricia Wiltshire is a forensic ecologist, her days spent at crime scenes collecting samples, standing over dead bodies in a mortuary, or looking down her microscope for evidence.

Working at the interface of where the criminal and natural world interact, Patricia has been involved in some of the most high-profile murder cases. Now, through a study of her most infamous, and fascinating cases—including the murder of Sarah Payne, and the Soham murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman—Patricia will show us how she finds the answers to some of the worst crimes imaginable. Not only does she help the police solve crimes and give answers to the most bemusing circumstances, but she can help to exonerate the innocent and enable confessions from the guilty.

In The Natural History of Crime , we join Patricia in putting the puzzle together, teasing the evidence out of her cases and showing us all how life and death have always been, and always will be, intertwined. Nature has given us a messy, imperfect world, but her job is to help make sense of it when we need it to most.

"I love puzzles, and finding answers is the only truly enjoyable part of what I do."...

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