Polycystic kidney disease, or PKD, affects some twelve million people worldwide. Yet it's relatively unknown, getting a fraction of the attention given to high-profile, "sexy" diseases, and many suffer with the symptoms years before diagnosis. I, Kidney, the debut novel from transplant recipient Chris Six, aims to change this scenario.
Against a picture-postcard New England backdrop, the Zizzi familyathlete dad, vivacious mom, two bright kidscopes with physical and emotional setbacks. Younger son Joe narrates the story, chronicling his mother's death, the derailing of his father's sports career, his brother's struggles with mental illness, and his own wry attempts to make sense of life.
And then Joe finds out he has PKD.
The second half of the story takes readers through the early testing and diagnostic stages, nutritional and surgical preparations for dialysis, treatment processes and side effects, complementary therapies, and a wide range of positive and negative encounters with doctors, nurses, and technicians, all seasoned with equal amounts of hope, doubt, and even humor as to whether a viable organ will eventually appear. A directory of kidney and mental health-related resources is included as an appendix.
Author Chris Six, who founded the Chris Six Group imprint in 2013, meant to have the novel out sometime that year, but events kept getting in the wayincluding welcome ones such as a kidney transplant after nearly four years on the waiting list. "The bulk of the kidney-related incidents in the story actually happened to me or to people I knew in dialysis," says Six. "We're all family in the treatment center.
"A great deal of writing this book was about getting the practical info out there. When I was first diagnosed with PKD, I had no idea what lay in store for me. I could have used a book like thisand many of the professionals who were involved in my treatment could still learn from it."
I, Kidney is available from Amazon paper and Kindle, and Barnes & Noble.com.
The Chris Six Group is dedicated to "literature from left field"thought-provoking fiction in a variety of genres. Releases include the fantasy The Basket of Seeds by Ska St. Julian, Raanan Geberer's short story collection Moish and the Mob, and Kew Stapleton's political/sports satire New York Brain.
Book Details:
"I, Kidney: A Novel"
By Chris Six
Publisher: The Chris Six Group
ISBN: 978-0989918244
ASIN: B00QMRHDW8
Pages: 326
Genre: Literary Fiction, Family Saga
For review copies, author interviews, or more information please contact:
Chris Six
Email: ambi_mo (at) msn.com
Website: http://www.thechrissixgroup.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheChrisSixGrou
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheChrisSixGroup
Comments
To post a comment, you must
register and
login.
