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This month, I am so pleased to welcome Megan O'Rourke to Gabfest Reads. Megan has written

a really engrossing book called The Invisible Kingdom. The subtitle is reimagining chronic

illness. This is a book about a silent epidemic of chronic illnesses that afflict tens of millions

of Americans. Often, the diseases that Megan is writing about are poorly understood and

frequently marginalized and undiagnosed altogether. It's a harrowing book because of the subject

matter, but it's not at all harrowing to read. I actually found it to be kind of a page

turner. And because Megan is a poet and incredibly discerning reader, it's infused with beauty

and joy from literature about all kinds of topics. So, Megan, you're investigating this

elusive category of quote, invisible illness. Autoimmune diseases, post-treatment, Lyme

disease syndrome, and now long COVID. Just tell us a little bit about how this began for

you.

First of all, thank you so much. Emily, this is one of the first times I'm hearing my

book described by a reader, and it's so illuminating actually because I think I really worried

that this would be a book characterized by the narrative of chronic illness, which is

recurrent and repetitive, right? So, I did work really hard to try to give it a shape,

and I'm in a strange way, please, to hear that it's a harrowing page turner. But the book

...