Patient

The True Story of a Rare Illness

Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Patient by Ben Watt, Grove Atlantic
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Author: Ben Watt ISBN: 9780802192035
Publisher: Grove Atlantic Publication: October 15, 2014
Imprint: Grove Press Language: English
Author: Ben Watt
ISBN: 9780802192035
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Publication: October 15, 2014
Imprint: Grove Press
Language: English

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year: “Unforgettable . . . Few have told such a compelling life-story as skillfully” (San Francisco Chronicle).

In the summer of 1992, on the eve of an American tour, singer/songwriter Ben Watt, one half of the Billboard-topping pop duo Everything But The Girl, was taken to a London hospital complaining of chest pain. As his condition worsened, doctors were baffled. He was eventually he was diagnosed with a rare life-threatening autoimmune disease called Churg-Strauss Syndrome. “To paraphrase Joseph Heller,” Ben says, “you know it’s something serious when they name it after two guys.” By the time he came home, two-and-half-months later, his ravaged body was forty-six pounds lighter, and he was missing most of his small intestine.

“Unfold[ing] like a page-turning mystery” (The Los Angeles Times), and “told with great wit and without self-pity, Patient is a sobering look at how life can suddenly be transformed into a humbling vaudeville of tests, IV’s, catheters, and bedpans” (The New York Times Book Review). Injecting a frankness and natural humility into his “funny, frightening, and piercingly vulnerable” (Interview) chronicle of a medical nightmare, Ben writes about his childhood, reflects on family, and his shared life with band member and partner, Tracey Thorn. The result is “a vivid, finely wrought look at having one’s future yanked away, and surviving physically and emotionally” (Dallas Morning Star-Telegram).

A Sunday Times Book of the Year
A Village Voice Favorite Book of the Year
An Esquire (UK) Best Non-Fiction Award Finalist

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year: “Unforgettable . . . Few have told such a compelling life-story as skillfully” (San Francisco Chronicle).

In the summer of 1992, on the eve of an American tour, singer/songwriter Ben Watt, one half of the Billboard-topping pop duo Everything But The Girl, was taken to a London hospital complaining of chest pain. As his condition worsened, doctors were baffled. He was eventually he was diagnosed with a rare life-threatening autoimmune disease called Churg-Strauss Syndrome. “To paraphrase Joseph Heller,” Ben says, “you know it’s something serious when they name it after two guys.” By the time he came home, two-and-half-months later, his ravaged body was forty-six pounds lighter, and he was missing most of his small intestine.

“Unfold[ing] like a page-turning mystery” (The Los Angeles Times), and “told with great wit and without self-pity, Patient is a sobering look at how life can suddenly be transformed into a humbling vaudeville of tests, IV’s, catheters, and bedpans” (The New York Times Book Review). Injecting a frankness and natural humility into his “funny, frightening, and piercingly vulnerable” (Interview) chronicle of a medical nightmare, Ben writes about his childhood, reflects on family, and his shared life with band member and partner, Tracey Thorn. The result is “a vivid, finely wrought look at having one’s future yanked away, and surviving physically and emotionally” (Dallas Morning Star-Telegram).

A Sunday Times Book of the Year
A Village Voice Favorite Book of the Year
An Esquire (UK) Best Non-Fiction Award Finalist

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