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.

RENOWNED WRITER AND INTELLECTUAL: A renowned poet, teacher, and memoirist, O'Rourke is celebrated for her evocative language and insight, qualities which make this book not just important but also beautiful, riveting, and accessible.

RELEVANCE: If every age has its representative signature disease, ours will be the entire category of autoimmune diseases that includes chronic fatigue syndrome, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, dysautonomia / POTS, fibromyalgia, and now, on a scale that is beyond epidemic, "long COVID."

STANDS APART FROM THE COMPETITION: There will be many books about COVID by scientists, journalists, and patients. This is not that. O'Rourke's book is a moving hybrid of literary memoir and cultural criticism, a personal, emotional, insightful, comforting voice to help readers feel less alone, whatever their chronic condition and questions, and help reframe their thinking about medicine going forward.

TIMING: O'Rourke had been working on this book for years already before Covid hit. She has spent the last 12 months learning and synthesizing how COVID fits into the larger topic of chronic illness, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders. She comes to this moment with a broad background.

ACCESSIBLE, PERSONAL READ : O'Rourke's emotional personal story of living with illness that has affected her home and work life grounds and humanizes the science and medicine she presents. Hers is a comforting, lyrical, personal voice.