The gripping story of a woman dying from cancer. The narrator is Ann Stanley, an unhappily married nurse. All the more reason for her to admire Ruth Thomas who leaves her husband, even though it means leaving her son, too. A bond develops between the two and when Ruth is struck with cancer Ann helps her die, the process described in minute detail. By the author of Durable Goods.

Cory Friedman woke up one morning when he was five years old with the uncontrollable urge to twitch his neck. From that day forward his life became a hell of irrepressible tics and involuntary utterances, and Cory embarked on an excruciating journey from specialist to specialist to discover the cause of his disease. Soon it became unclear what tics were symptoms of his disease and what were side effects of the countless combinations of drugs. The...

"A novel portraying a group of dedicated recreational swimmers and what happens when a crack appears at the bottom of their community pool"-- The swimmers are unknown to each other except through their private routines (slow lane, fast lane), and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief. One of these swimmers...

Stella is a vibrant, fun-loving seventeen-year-old, who, unlike most teenagers, has to spend much of her time living at a hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. When Stella meets Will, a charming and rebellious fellow patient, she feels a powerful connection, but the risk of life-threatening infection dictate that she and Will maintain a safe distance between them. As their feelings grow, Stella and Will face a life-changing question: How does love...

After a freak accident--ice fell on him as he walked in the street--a man lies in a coma in a hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lainey, his wife, is the only one who believes he will recover. She visits him every day, bringing family objects and talking of home, becoming ever more aware of the wonder and richness of daily life.

"After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The...

"A searing memoir of reckoning and healing from an acclaimed journalist and former This American Life producer investigating the little-understood science behind Complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life. By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as a radio producer at This American Life and had won an Emmy. But behind her office door she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk. After years of questioning...

Doling out advice in a Wisconsin newspaper column, Julianne Ambrose Gillis struggles with the challenges of her husband's inexplicable abandonment and her subsequent diagnosis with a serious illness

They're one of the country's most telegenic couples: beloved TV journalist Sara Lowell and New York's hottest basketball star, Michael Silverman. In a Manhattan clinic, a doctor has dedicated his life to eradicating a devastating disease. One by one, they're being targeted by a serial killer. And now Michael has been diagnosed with the disease.

An Emmy Award-winning writer and activist describes the harrowing years she spent in early adulthood fighting leukemia and how she learned to live again while forging connections with other survivors of profound illness and suffering. A few weeks shy of her twenty-third birthday, Jaouad received a diagnosis of leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival. She would spend much of the next four years in a hospital bed, fighting for her life and chronicling...