The Body Myth

Thirty-two-year old Mira is a schoolteacher who has spent the last year coping with the sudden death of her husband only seven months into their marriage. Mira lives alone, with only the French existentialists as companions, until the day her solitary existence is upended by a beautiful woman having a seizure in a local park. Mira is quickly drawn into the life of this mysterious woman, Sara, who suffers a myriad of unexplained illnesses, and her kind, intensely supportive husband, Rahil. As she strikes up intimate, volatile and fragile friendships with them, Mira is intoxicated by their attention and eager to unravel the mystery of Sara's illness. The deeper Mira is drawn into their relationship, the harder it becomes to see the truth; and the more she grows to love them, the more she has to lose.

The Body Myth is a powerfully intimate debut novel about the fetishization of illness. With its particular sense of insularity, a blurring of the erotic and the grotesque, and a keen interest in the female body and the question of ownership, The Body Myth is compelling, unexpected, and deeply empathetic.