The Sickness

By Alberto Barrera Tyszka

Dr. Miranda is faced with a tragedy: his father has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has only a few weeks to live. He is also faced with a dilemma: How does one tell his father he is dying? Ernesto Duran, a patient of Dr. Miranda’s, is convinced he is sick. Ever since he separated from his wife he has been presenting symptoms of an illness he believes is killing him. It becomes an obsession far exceeding hypochondria. The fixation, in turn, has its own creeping effect on Miranda’s secretary, who cannot, despite her best intentions, resist compassion for the man. Alberto Barrera Tyszka’s tender, refined novel interweaves the stories of four individuals as they try, in their own way, to come to terms with sickness in all its ubiquity.

 

"The Sickness is refreshingly clean in its storytelling yet very complex in character."—Times Literary Supplement

 

"Tyszka is a perceptive, original writer. He has brought an unusually sophisticated understanding to a wonderfully intense, little novel. No sentimentality, no polemic, just emotion at its most resonant."—Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times

 

"Powerful writing [which does] not let you off or let you down."—The Lady

 

"Well-pitched, gentle and suggestive . . . philosophy in the story."—Skinny

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