Divided by settings, Khakpour guides the reader through her illness by way of the locations that changed her course-New York, LA, Santa Fe, and a college town in Germany-as she meditates on the physiological and psychological impacts of uncertainty, and the eventual challenge of accepting the diagnosis she had searched for over the course of her adult life. Sick is Khakpour's grueling, emotional journey-as a woman, an Iranian-American, a writer, and a lifelong sufferer of undiagnosed health problems-in which she examines her subsequent struggles with mental illness and her addiction to doctor prescribed benzodiazepines, that both aided and eroded her ever-deteriorating physical health. Several drug addictions, some major hospitalizations, and over $100,000 later, she finally had a diagnosis: late-stage Lyme disease. For most of that time, she didn't know why. Khakpour takes us all the way in on her struggle toward health with an intelligence and intimacy that moved, informed, and astonished me.” - Cheryl Strayed, New York Times bestselling author of WildĪ powerful, beautifully rendered memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction, and the myth of full recovery.įor as long as author Porochista Khakpour can remember, she has been sick. Humane, searching, and unapologetic, Sick is about the thin lines and vast distances between illness and wellness, healing and suffering, the body and the self. “Porochista Khakpour’s powerful memoir, Sick, reads like a mystery and a reckoning with a love song at its core. Electric Literature’s 46 Books to Read By Women of Color in 2018.Nylon’s 50 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018.

Bustle’s 28 Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of 2018 list.Boston Globe's 25 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2018.A Best Book of the Year: Real Simple, Entropy, Mental Floss, Bitch Media, The Paris Reivew, and LitHub.

Sick by porochista