Illness Fiction

“The debut by Pushcart-winning short story writer Kim Samek blends subversive humor with the absurd in a memorable collection of stories. . . . Recommended for fans of Ben Loory and Aimee Bender.”—Los Angeles Times (20 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2026) A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Alta...

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE FINALIST FOR THE 2023 JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE From the author of the award-winning debut story collection We Show What We Have Learned, an "atoundingly original” (The New York Times Book Review) work of historical fiction with shocking and eerie...

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.

The End of Miracles is a twisting, haunting story about the drastic consequences of a frustrated obsession. A woman with a complex past wants nothing more than to become a mother, but struggles with infertility and miscarriage. She is temporarily comforted by a wish-fulfilling false pregnancy, but when reality inevitably dashes that fantasy, she falls into a depression so deep she must be hospitalized.

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.

A teen grapples with ALS and his decision to die in this devastatingly beautiful debut novel infused with the haunting grace of samurai death poetry and the noble importance of friendship. Abe Sora is going to die, and he’s only 17 years old. Diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), he’s already lost the use of his legs, which means he can no longer attend school. Seeking a sense of normality, Sora visits teen chat rooms online and finally finds what he’s been longing for: friendship without pity.

Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told that she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste. Eight months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, all she wants to do now is grab her surfboard and hit the waves - which is strange, because she wasn’t interested in surfing before her transplant. (It doesn’t hurt that her instructor, Kai, is seriously good-looking.)

Teenager Cason Martin is the youngest ballerina in the Atlanta Ballet Conservatory. She never really had a choice of whether she learned to dance or not. Her mother, the conservatory's artistic director, has made all the decisions in Cason's life. But that's about to change. Cason has been hiding an injury, and it's much worse than anyone imagines.

Heather Fowler's fourth collection of fiction speaks to the language of need. Desperate, obsessive, even demented need is voiced by characters ill or ill-advised. From modern to historical, cyber to stalker, explicit to tender, the relationships in Elegantly Naked in My Sexy Mental Illness translate love and lust into disorder.

Dallas, Dealey Plaza, 1963. Nineteen-year-old Mariah Byrne is following her dream of a career in photography. One moment she’s filled with joy and hope watching the president and Mrs. Kennedy drive past. In the next, the world—and Mariah’s life—is split into before and after. What follows, and the unconventional decisions Mariah makes, will affect her and her family forever.

'The albatross is just about the rarest thing in golf - two shots on a par 5. A hole-in-one, anywhere on the course, is just a random event, a fluke. It's not your own doing. But an albatross . . . It's a thing of beauty. One. Two. It must be very deliberate, very thoughtful, one superb shot...

Palliative-care physician and award-winning author Anna DeForest returns with an ode to life and to death, and the ways we care for ourselves and others on our long, marvelous walk toward the end. In a pandemic-hushed city, a young doctor lives a life of insecure attachments: to a distant...

Following her father's death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor's doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone...and more tormented.

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.

On their first date, Mina told Oscar that she was bisexual, vegetarian, and on meds. He married her anyhow. A challenge to be met. She had low days, sure, but manageable. But now, maybe not so much.... Mina is standing on the George Washington Bridge late at night, staring over the edge, when a patrol car drives up. She tries to convince the policeman she's not about to jump, but he doesn't believe her. Oscar is called to pick her up.

A poignant, deeply funny coming-of-age story about first love, first loss, and the power of history to give life meaning. * "[An] impressive debut...John Green fans will gobble this one up." -- Kirkus, starred review History buff Ray knows everything about the peculiar legends and lore of his...

“A smart and gripping debut that saves its best for last.” —Chris Cleave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Little Bee “[A] thoroughly satisfying and suspenseful debut…the final twist in the murder plot will catch many readers unaware, as will the surprising emotional heft of the...

The redemptive journey of a young woman unsure of her engagement, who revisits in memory the events of one scorching childhood summer when her beautiful yet troubled mother spirits her away from her home to an Indian village untouched by time, where she discovers in the jungle behind her...

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.