This book exaimines the need many severely ill people have to tell others about what has happened to them. Using illustrative material from the writings of Reynolds Price, Nancy Mairs, Gilda Radner, Anatole Broyard, and others, he shows how storytelling helps repair the damage and reclaim the self. Frank discusses restitution, chaos, and quest stories while also alluding to the ethic of recollection, solidarity, and inspiration. This is an enlightening book about illness and the high morality of the wounded storyteller.