Illness Fiction

Do you have trouble unwinding after a stressful day? Do you lie down at night and spend hours trying to get to sleep? But, it feels like you just can't stop thinking about what you forgot to do today, what you could've done better, what you need to get done tomorrow, or what happens if something unexpected happens. Your brain keeps on going even though you desperately want to rest. Even worse, it feels like you are focused on negative things. And all you want is rest. You want to shut your brain down!

Ettie is trying to figure out her future. Dominic’s just trying to forget his past. But with the help of some unlikely friends, young and old, a secret lake hidden in the grounds of a beautiful estate and a scruffy dog, a new community is formed–right when they all need each other the most.

This groundbreaking anthology presents 40 narratives, both nonfiction and fiction, that together capture the impact and complexity of Alzheimer’s and other dementias on patients, as well as their caregivers and family. Deeply personal, recounting the wrenching course of a disease that kills a loved one twice - first they forget who they are, and then the body succumbs - these stories also show how witnessing the disease and caring for someone with it can be powerfully transformative, calling forth amazing strength and grace.

Ash boards a Greyhound bus heading to the place where Bly was last seen: Snowflake, Arizona. Six thousand feet up in the wide red desert, Ash meets Mona, her dog, her goat, and her neighbors, and finds stepbrother Bly, too. In their ramshackle homes, the walls lined with tinfoil, almost all the residents of Snowflake are sick. But this isn’t any ordinary sickness: the chemicals and technologies of modern life are poisoning them.

Twenty-one-year-old narcoleptic Angel Duet knows her father harbors secrets. He loves and protects her, but his suspicious refusal to discuss her mother's death drives Angel to worship an image created from the little history she does have: her father's sketchy stories and her mother's treasured photography, studies of clouds that have hung in the their foyer for more than twenty years. When her father's girlfriend moves in, the photographs come down, and Angel's search for truth becomes an obsession.

Kate McAllister is desperate for a change. Something to hit refresh and erase the pain of her mother leaving town without her. So when a group of popular girls folds Kate into their clique, it feels like the answer to all her problems - even if it means ditching Haddie, her childhood bestie. But when Kate’s new friends decide that Haddie is their next target, Kate becomes a passive participant in a cruel incident that could have killed Haddie...had Kate not stepped in, at the last minute, and saved her.

When she meets Connor, their attraction is magnetic and their steamy role-plays sizzle. She’s certain he feels their undeniable chemistry. They share a passion for movies, but he never takes her to see one. She can't figure out why he doesn’t message for days or why he won’t commit. Behind her party-girl persona, she can’t stop overanalyzing what must be wrong with her-or stop picking her skin. Her reckless lifestyle and an unexpected friendship with a drug dealer quickly transform her life from upbeat rom-com to twisted docudrama.

Cancer stole everything from Ceelie - her peace of mind, her self-image, perhaps even her 23-year marriage to her college sweetheart, Nate. Without the support of Darlene, her quirky elderly friend, she may not have been able to endure so much loss. So when Darlene’s own prognosis turns dire, Ceelie can’t refuse her seemingly impossible request - to find a WWII paratrooper named Cal, the father who disappeared when Darlene was an infant, leaving a lifetime of desolation in his wake.

Seventeen-year-old Arman Dukoff can't remember life without anxiety and chronic illness when he arrives at an expensive self-help retreat in the remote hills of Big Sur. He's taken a huge risk - and $2,000 from his meth-head stepfather - for a chance to "evolve", as Beau, the retreat leader, says. Beau is complicated. A father figure? A cult leader? A con man? Arman's not sure, but more than anyone he's ever met, Beau makes Arman feel something other than what he usually feels - worthless.

Gulf war syndrome: fact or fiction? Saudi Arabia, 1991. Troops are in a state of high alert. The chemical warfare detectors have sounded, and the soldiers scramble into their protective suits. In terse silence, they remind themselves of the vaccinations that will protect them. Then the all clear sounds, and the troops rejoice that they are unharmed. Or so they think.

A swimmer whose early talent made her a world champion, Susannah was poised for greatness in a sport that demands so much of its young. But an inexplicable slowdown has put her dream in jeopardy, and Susannah is fighting to keep her career afloat when two important people enter her life: a new coach with a revolutionary training strategy and a charming fellow swimmer named Harry Matthews.

Cymbeline Igloo is bored. Bored of home learning, bored of lockdown, bored of not being able to do anything. And to make things even worse, his mum accidentally gave away his favourite football shirt. But then Mrs Stebbings, the beloved school cook, is taken into hospital, and suddenly coronavirus seems much closer to home. When Cym starts a project all about Mrs Stebbings’ childhood in World War II, he can’t know that it’s the beginning of something incredible and even dangerous.

What if the dreaded world of Alzheimer's was also a world of emotional discovery? Eugenia Zukerman's poetry and simple prose, both heartbreaking and ultimately inspirational, ushers the listener into her world as she unflinchingly examines familial loyalties, moments from her past and present, and the need to face an uncertain future due to the diagnosis of a condition that she truly hopes "will remain unnamed."

Dolores Mendoza is not thriving. She was recently diagnosed with a chronic bladder condition called interstitial cystitis. The painful disease isn’t life-threatening, but it is threatening to ruin her life. Just when things seem hopeless, Dolores meets someone poised to change her fate. Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones is glamorous, autistic, and homeschooled against her will by her overprotective mother. After a rocky start, the girls form a tentative partnership

Аукционы бывают разными. На них выставляют не только произведения искусств. Но и девушек. Красивых и молодых. Саша по доброй воле "сделала" себя лотом. Потому что иного выхода не видела…Что будет по завершению аукциона - не имеет значения. Врачи поставили ей неутешительный диагноз, по факту вынося приговор. Время на исходе.

In the years since his daughter Vanessa moved to America to become a professor of philosophy, Alan Querry has never been to visit. He has been too busy at home in northern England, holding together his business as a successful property developer. His younger daughter, Helen - a music executive in London - hasn’t gone, either, and the two sisters, close but competitive, have never quite recovered from their parents’ bitter divorce and the early death of their mother. But then Vanessa’s new boyfriend sends word that she has fallen into a severe depression and that he’s worried for her safety....

Macy Hollinquest is 11 years old, and don't count on her to change that anytime soon. Her birthday is just days away, but she has no intention of turning 12 without her dad by her side. He'd promised to be there for her big day, yet he's been gone for months - away after his discharge from the army, doing some kind of top secret "important work".

Margaret "Cuckoo" Clarke recently had a brief stay in a mental institution following an emotional breakdown, but she's turning over a new leaf with her "Operation Happiness". She's determined to beat down the bad vibes of the Haters, the Terror Teachers, and all of the trials and tribulations of high school by writing and drawing in her diary. And when life gets really tough, she works through her own moments of uncertainty through imaginary conversations with her favorite literary characters.

A wealthy man with a critically ill wife seeks the help of Matthew Hiller, a gifted doctor with a thriving practice. But in addition to the difficult professional challenge, Matthew finds himself facing the toughest emotional crisis of his life, since he met the lovely patient, Silvia, years ago, when both were young doctors healing the sick in Africa.

DG is five the first time her mother goes away. She’ll go away again and again before DG finally understands why: mental illness and a manipulating husband. DG’s family aren’t like other families. Her father moves them constantly. Moving, along with the stigma of mental illness, isolates the family. In public, they seem the perfect American dream. In private they grow increasingly unstable. Darling Girl unfolds in a series of vignettes spanning 10 years and four continents.