Sick

by Porochista Khakpour

  • Harper Perennial
  • 2018
  • ISBN: 978-0062428738
  • 272 pages
  • WorldCat
Sick
About the Book

Sick is Khakpour's arduous, emotional journey--as a woman, a writer, and a lifelong sufferer of undiagnosed health problems--through the chronic illness that perpetually left her a victim of anxiety, living a life stymied by an unknown condition. Divided by settings, Khakpour guides the reader through her illness by way of the locations that changed her course--New York, LA, New Mexico, and Germany--as she meditates on both the physical and psychological impacts of uncertainty, and the eventual challenge of accepting the diagnosis she had searched for over the course of her adult life. With candor and grace, she examines her subsequent struggles with mental illness, her addiction to the benzodiazepines prescribed by her psychiatrists, and her ever-deteriorating physical health. A story about survival, pain, and transformation, Sick is a candid, illuminating narrative of hope and uncertainty, boldly examining the deep impact of illness on one woman's life. ebook icon Audio book icon

Time Magazine's Best Memoirs of 2018 | Boston Globe's 25 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2018 | Buzzfeed's 33 Most Exciting New Books | GQ Best Non Fiction Book of 2018 | Bustle’s 28 Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of 2018 list | Nylon’s 50 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018 | Electric Literature’s 46 Books to Read By Women of Color in 2018
Porochista Khakpour
About the Author

Porochista Khakpour’s debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, one of the Chicago Tribune’s Fall’s Best, and the 2007 California Book Award winner in the “First Fiction” category. Her second novel The Last Illusion was a 2014 ""Best Book of the Year"" according to NPR, Kirkus, Buzzfeed, Popmatters, Electric Literature, and many more. Among her many fellowships is a National Endowment for the Arts award. Her nonfiction has appeared in many sections of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Slate, Salon, and Bookforum, among many others. Currently, she is guest faculty at VCFA and Stonecoast's MFA programs as well as Contributing Editor at The Evergreen Review. Born in Tehran and raised in the Los Angeles area, she lives in New York City’s Harlem.

Official website of Porochista Khakpour

Host a Book Discussion

  • Join us for a book discussion of Sick social media graphic

    Do you want to share this book with your reading group? The Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) has made it easy to promote and discuss.

    • Discussion Guide PDF
    • Social Media JPG
    • Poster PDF* [8.5 x 11]
    • Reading Club Bookmark PDF

     

    * How to edit PDF files

  • Tick

    Discover Lyme Disease information in multiple languages using MedlinePlus.

Terms of use: Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) staff offer these health discussion resources for educational use. The materials included do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the author, publisher, or the sponsoring agencies of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

last updated: 08/01/25 11:00