Meghan O'Rourke is the author of The Long Goodbye and the poetry collections Sun in Days, Once, and Halflife. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and other awards, she is the editor of The Yale Review. Her writing appears in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and more.
Praise for The Invisible Kingdom:
“An authentically original voice and, perhaps more startlingly, an
authentically original perspective….The book is not only a memoir
of her illness, but also a document of years of research.” —Andrew
Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon,
in The New York Times Book Review
“The Invisible Kingdom is an important and powerful book in many
ways, but perhaps its most valuable contribution is the way it
articulates the loneliness and frustration of having symptoms that
superficially resemble the pains and pressures of contemporary life
in the United States while being much more severe.”—The Nation
“[O’Rourke] gives shape and color to the invisible life of patients
whom society has failed. She offers hope for patient-driven change.
Most important, she provides an account that many will be able to
relate to—a ray of light into those isolated cocoons of darkness
that, at one time or another, may afflict us all.” —The Wall Street
Journal
“In this elegant fusion of memoir, reporting, and cultural history,
O’Rourke traces the development of modern Western medicine and
takes aim at its limitations, advocating for a community-centric
healthcare model that treats patients as people, not parts. At once
a rigorous work of scholarship and a radical act of empathy, The
Invisible Kingdom has the power to move mountains.”—Esquire
“O’Rourke boldly investigates the origin of her ills and possible
cures. More crucially, she probes the cultural, psychological, and
medical experiences of people with poorly understood or
immune-mediated illnesses…The Invisible Kingdom couldn’t be more
timely.”—The Boston Globe
"[A] personal and deeply moving exploration of life with chronic
illness. . .[The Invisible Kingdom] may serve as an affirmation
that people living with chronic illness are not alone. . . both
moving and educational."—Library Journal, STARRED review
“A call to arms in the fight for compassionate healthcare…The
Invisible Kingdom is a medical detective story with the drama and
style of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. O’Rourke’s book
has ignited a necessary conversation, proving the pen to be as
mighty as the stethoscope.” – Oprah Daily
“Meghan O’Rourke’s book is a searing and thoroughly researched
exploration of the pain and confusion that many [chronic illness
sufferers] go through in their quest to have their health issues
taken seriously by the medical establishment—and, often, the world
at large.” —Vogue
“An affecting portrayal of how we view disease, experience illness,
and search for healing.” -Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“With a poet’s sensibility, journalist’s rigor, and patient’s
personal investment, O’Rourke sheds light on the physical and
mental toll of having a mysterious chronic illness…Readers will be
left in awe.”-Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“The Invisible Kingdom is a vivid account of the lived experience
of chronic illness. Meghan O’Rourke exposes a system of
thought in which people with poorly understood illnesses are
dismissed and disbelieved, blamed for their own suffering, and left
to take desperate risks in pursuit of treatment. Crucially, her
perspective offers insight into how we can do better.” –Eula Biss,
author of Having and Being Had
“O’Rourke’s honest and insightful account of chronic pain is at
once a page-turner and an education in cutting-edge science and the
history of ideas. I couldn’t put it down.” – Gretchen Rubin, #1 New
York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project
“In this urgent and beautifully written book, Meghan O'Rourke lays
siege to one of the last taboos in medicine: the chronic
illnesses that govern the daily lives of millions of people, but
are rarely acknowledged. As we confront the long-term
impacts of COVID-19, O’Rourke’s lyrical analysis couldn't come
at a better time.” – Michael Specter, New Yorker staff writer and
author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Harms the Planet and
Threatens Our Lives
“With impressive clarity and depth, O’Rourke explores the failure
of current biological science to identify the causes of numerous
maladies or offer effective treatment, leaving a sufferer adrift.
Bracing in its intelligence and remarkable in its sweep of both
literary and medical scope, this book is essential reading for
patients and medical professionals alike.” —Jerome Groopman MD,
author of How Doctors Think
“Emotionally compelling and intellectually rich." —Kirkus
“O’Rourke is a poet above all else, and it’s with incredible,
lyrical empathy that she not only shares her own story of and
eventual diagnosis with late-stage Lyme disease, but puts it in
perspective of an entire generation of patients who’ve been
dismissed . . . A must read.” —Lithub
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