A devastating memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction and the myth of full recovery - already an online phenomenon in the USA in summer 2018.
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For as long as Porochista Khakpour can remember, she has been sick. For most of that time, she didn't know why. A story of survival, pain and transformation, Sick examines the colossal impact of illness on one woman's life. It is a journey that took Porochista Khakpour from Tehran, the town of her birth, through the major cities of America, the country she came to call home, before she eventually found a diagnosis of late-stage Lyme disease.
Sick explores what it means to feel at home in one's body, and also one's country. And what it means not to.
About the Author
Porochista Khakpour is the author of the novels Sons and Other Flammable Objects , which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and The Last Illusion . Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Slate and Salon, among others. She has been awarded a number of fellowships and is currently a guest member of the faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts and a Contributing Editor at the Evergreen Review. Born in Tehran and raised in Los Angeles, she now lives in New York City's Harlem. Her memoir, Sick, chronicles her discovery of late-stage Lyme disease.
Industry Reviews
In Sick, Khakpour, a novelist and academic, chronicles her journey. It is a story of extreme illness and her fight for a diagnosis; of drugs, prescribed and recreational; of being female and a woman of colour; of feeling like an outsider. It amounts to a fierce work of feminism and an indictment of the healthcare system in America. It is also a haunting and sensational achievement . . . Sick is an intelligent tale of remarkable survival - as soon as you have finished you will want to start again * * Sunday Times * *
Reads like a mystery and a reckoning with a love song at its core . . . Khakpour takes us all the way in on her struggle towards health with an intelligence and intimacy that moved, informed, and astonished me -- CHERYL STRAYED
Draws attention to the ways in which women are expected to tell stories of sickness * * The New Yorker * *
A gripping account of illness . . . This intimate account of suffering has the narrative propulsion of a thriller * * Financial Times * *
Arresting . . . Sick upends all the tropes of the illness memoir . . . Khakpour's prose is beautiful, at once silky and scorching, like the curls of smoke rising from a fire that's just starting * * Slate * *
Khakpour is a citizen of the world but a foreigner in her own "Lyme-struck" body. Her searing memoir about trying to make peace with a chronic illness redefines both dislocation and belonging * * Oprah Magazine * *
The constant change in geography, in lovers, and in health are immensely pleasurable to read on every page, despite the author's uncertain future through it all. The very worst moments . . . are gravid with her joy at being able to write it. In the end, it's this joy of writing, however grim the content, that is really the subject of Sick. I love this book -- Ben Shields * * The Paris Review * *
In this chilling memoir, the Iranian-born writer details her struggle with late-stage Lyme disease, drug addiction and mental illness . . . Sick doesn't make for an easy read, but it's definitely worth delving into this beautifully complicated memoir about living life with Lyme * * ELLE * *
Written with bravery and honesty, Sick is an account of chronic illness, drug addictions, pain both physical and emotional, and the toll of misdiagnosis -- BuzzFeed
This book gives a voice - a fierce, booming, brutally honest voice - to the millions of people silently suffering with invisible illnesses of their own . . . Thank you, thank you, thank you, Porochista for giving so much of yourself in this miraculous memoir. The world is a better place with your book in it -- SUSANNAH CAHALAN, author of BRAIN ON FIRE
