The Sanctuary of Illness: A Memoir of Heart Disease
''Written in the tradition of Sherwin Nuland and Anatole Broyard, Thomas Larson's The Sanctuary of Illness is both a meditation on mortality and a call to arms in the face of the inevitable. By turns defiant, humorous, earthy, and literary, the work is a felicitous mix of memoir and reporting: the heart as a pulsing source of both truth and fact.'' --Madeleine Blais, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist''Thomas Larson has written a sumptuous and insightful personal chronicling of the pathway into and away from coronary artery disease.'' --Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn,Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease''In the realm of fear and suffering and grief there must be poetry, and Larson finds it again and again in this memoir. His clarity, his humility, and his grace are profoundly moving.''--Richard Hoffman,Half the House''This powerful book conveys one man's struggle fighting heart disease. Thomas Larson describes multiple heart attacks, interventions, and his decision to try to change his fate with a plant-based diet. His example and dramatic rebound are truly inspiring.'' --Neal Barnard, M.D.¸ featured in the film, ''Forks Over Knives.''The Sanctuary of Illness--a model of the memoirist's art--feels like an instrument of personal discovery and healing. Intimate, searching, vivid, Larson's story is also a cautionary tale that if heeded might prolong your life.'' -- Richard Gilbert,Shepherd: A Memoir