The Sickness

When you deal with tragedy and death on a regular basis it’s necessary to keep yourself at a remove or else you might go mad. To empathise with strangers on a regular basis is to drain yourself of emotional resources needed to keep you focused. When a loved one becomes ill, however, even the most detached in the medical profession can become dribbling idiots in the face of pain and illness.

It’s hard enough for us ordinary folk to deal with someone close to us who has succumbed to sickness of any sort. With my kids I felt every ache and pain that gripped them. If I could have cured them by taking their illnesses as my own I would have: from croup, to asthma, mumps, measles and chickenpox, toothache, broken limbs, colds and flu, I would have had them all twice over to spare my children any unnecessary suffering. Of course, I know now that they needed to go through all those health hiccups in order to make them stronger, better able to face the world.

And after all that, a brief hiatus before my parents began to fall apart: a hip replacement that never quite healed, a mild heart attack with another fatal one in the offing, a broken leg, a hospital stay that ended abruptly after an horrific bout of clostridium difficile.

This beautifully written novel by Alberto Barrera Tyszka explores the issues surrounding sickness in curious detail. The story deals with the chaotic emotions felt by Dr Andrés Miranda when his father falls ill. Tell me, his father begs, tell me the truth about my condition, please tell me. But his son, who has always believed in being totally honest with his patients, hasn’t got the words to talk to his own flesh and blood. Ernesto Durán, a hypochondriac, also begs Dr Miranda to tell him the truth about his condition. He pleads with his doctor, rings him, writes long tortured emails describing his desperation until, eventually, Dr Miranda is forced to stop responding. Karina, the secretary, can’t bear to ignore Durán whom she believes may be genuinely sick so she becomes embroiled in his hypochondria 'til she is almost driven insane.

By now, you’re probably thinking that this is a most depressing book but you would be quite wrong! Having won the prestigious Spanish award, Premio Herralde de Novela, in 2006, this English translation is getting rave reviews from the critics and on this occasion, I agree with them. It is delicate, touching, unusual and very enjoyable. Friedrich Nietzsche hit the nail on the head when he said, that which does not kill us makes us stronger.