Bodies of Truth

"Those seeking a fuller picture of what it's like living with disease or disability, as well as educators looking for teachable essays for a medical humanities class or writing group, will find this work outstanding."—Aaron Klink, Library Journal

“Bodies of Truth takes us to a world of miraculous drugs and drug addictions, of doctors who wonder how to shake hands with the prisoners they treat and nurses who come to confession because death has worked its way into their souls. Above all, it’s truth: that our bodies, and the bodies of those we love and care for, so often take us to places we never knew existed, to find strengths we never knew we had. If illness and death are lonesome roads we must at some point travel, I can’t think of a more fitting companion than this volume. The writers here come as strangers to us, but they bring us gifts—their stories—that connect us whether in pain or compassion.”—Paul Shepherd, editor of Hospital Drive and author of More Like Not Running Away

“I read Bodies of Truth almost in one sitting, so compelling are the stories. To read this many of them—different illnesses and disabilities, and from different perspectives—is strangely heartening. This is all of us, represented here, wounded in one way or another or looking after the wounded. If we can say how it is, and be listened to, surely the exposure will heal a lot of festering. I am glad to have this beautifully orchestrated, passionately written collection.”—Fleda Brown, author of My Wobbly Bicycle: Meditations on Cancer and the Creative Life

“Bodies of Truth offers personal accounts of individuals caught up in the lived experience of illness. . . . They are not necessarily asking us to judge, to change the world, or even to react. They merely ask, as did Coleridge’s ancient mariner, that we pause to hear the tale, setting aside for a moment the tasks at hand.”—Jacek L. Mostwin, professor of urology and the director of the Division of Neurological and Reconstructive Urology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and faculty affiliate of the Berman Institute of Bioethics