The 10 Books to read in August. “Sarah Vallance was a PhD with a high level career when a fall from a horse resulted in a traumatic brain injury that caused her IQ to plummet to 80. Given that she’s written a beautiful new memoir, you know she’s recovered - but her book is less about reaching that destination and more about learning to care for one’s self and others.” Washington Post
“Prognosis, beautifully wrought and essential, stands itself as testament to the power of human reclamation and recovery.” Susanne Antonetta, author of A Mind Apart
"A lot of memoirs are about redemption and survival, but Sarah Vallance has outdone most by writing a rather brilliant and compulsively compelling book about her harrowing Traumatic Brain Injury without an ounce of self pity, but with irony, wit, and a lack of the kind of self-absorption that critics sometimes see as the hallmark of the contemporary memoir. If you want to find redemption and a story of overcoming the odds, yes you can certainly find it here, but I’d rather commend it for its crystalline prose, and Vallance's skills as a consummate stylist and story teller." Robin Hemley, author of Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art and Madness
"Sarah Vallance's Prognosis isn't just a riveting account of life before and after a traumatic brain injury; or a meditation on what happens to the mind when the brain (almost) stops working. It's a book about what it means to care for others—parents, dogs, friends, patients—and how we can learn to care for ourselves." Jess Row, author of White Flights and Your Face in Mine
“Prognosis is a memoir of Sarah Vallance’s amazing perseverance in face of a traumatic brain injury, asking the crucial question of what our brain's relationship is to our sense of self. As she unravels the effects of her neurological symptoms in prose as distinctive and meticulously crafted as William Styron or Joan Didion, we learn about our own mortal bodies, our relationship to grief and time, the legacy of the families into which we were born, and ultimately our irrefutable ability for self-determination. In the end, this is a timeless love story told by a skeptical and wildly funny narrator who leads us into landscape of her own gray matter--both biological and social--with such care and insight that we can't help but rethink our own relationship to illness, sex, aging, and one another. Prognosis is an astonishing debut by a writer from whom we are sure to hear much more.” Ravi Shankar, Pushcart Prize winning author and editor of W.W Norton’s Language for a New Century
“Sarah Vallance has produced a harrowing but absorbingly immersive account of survival, rendering a life’s worth of pain and trauma with clear-eyed and measured precision. Also, I loved the dogs.” Matthew Vollmer, author of Permanent Exhibit
“Powerful in its depiction of the author’s will to rise above the limitations of her disability…With a mission of giving voice to the voiceless, Vallance shares the little-understood experience of surviving a traumatic brain injury.” Kirkus Reviews
“In direct and unflinching language, Sarah Vallance faces the existential question of whether our cognitive perception constitutes the totality of who we are. Fortunately for her, and for her readers, it does not. The head injury Vallance suffers begins a journey in which she discovers that her openness to the world, to friends, lovers, and family, is crucial to her recovery. While Prognosis is about physical, mental, and emotional wellness, it has even more to say about the larger question of how to live a full and authentic life. This a brave and necessary book.” Sue William Silverman, author, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew
“Combining love, loss and the restorative power of animals, Prognosis is a powerful testament from a writer who has experienced a life-altering brain injury. Vallance writes in exquisite detail and with fierce honesty about what appears to be a minor bump, but her brain injury will continue to reverberate through her life as she, society, and the field of neuroscience learn and grow to better understand this all-too common condition.” Justin Hill, author of The Drink and Dream Teahouse, Washington Post Book of the Year, and Shieldwall, Sunday Times Book of the Year
“Sarah Vallance’s Prognosis is a triumphant blend of candid personal writing and meticulous research into the modern epidemic of traumatic brain injuries. With artistry and sensitivity, Vallance weaves together her often-hazy memories into a vivid narrative in which her personal relationships - both human and canine - proved instrumental to her recovery. A must-read for anyone whose life has been touched by a TBI or memory loss.” Justin Hocking, author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld: A Memoir
“This is one of the most astonishing books I’ve read in a long time…I highly recommend this memoir.” Curve Magazine