Flood - by Christine Kalafus (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"FLOOD is a magical incantation with chiseled prose that cuts to the bone--bright, sharp, and thirst-quenching; I couldn't get enough. Kalafus delivers a memoir of motherhood, medicine, and making it work by any means necessary--showing us that even when the waters rise, the flood itself may carry us forward." --Adrian Shirk: author of And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy, an NPR Best Book "FLOOD is a brave book and a necessary one." --Michael Klein: Lambda Award Author of When I was a Twin Christine is pregnant with twins and reeling from her husband's affair when her right breast engages in a mutiny. Delivering identical boys and a tumor on the same day, she believes the worst is over. Until the natural spring under her house -- what the neighborhood kids call The Witch House -- begins to rise. Desperate for solid ground, Christine's desire for wisdom sweeps everything in its path--her parents' memories of the historic flood of 1955 that devastated Connecticut's upper and lower Housatonic River Valley, the impossible expectations of modern motherhood, and a chilling brush with medical gaslighting --reminding us that when the stakes include certain death, they cannot get any higher.

Review Quotes

"FLOOD is an exquisite and, at times, harrowing examination of the world of cancer--and by world, I mean the 360-degree of a disease as seen through the medical establishment, the intimates and, most importantly, by the survivor, herself." --Michael Klein, Lambda Award Winning Author of When I was a Twin

"Kalafus bears witness to the medicalization of the female body through a lens both intimate and wise. Peppered with the author's raw humor and frank admissions of doubt, this remarkable story is ultimately one of profound dignity and strength." --Danielle Pieratti, Winner of the Connecticut Book Award and author of Approximate Body

About the Author

Lauded by Publisher's Weekly as "reassuringly honest and entertaining," Christine's award-winning writing has appeared in The Culture We Deserve, Longreads, The New Guard, and The Connecticut Literary Anthology, among many other places. "I've Heard You Make Cakes," recorded before a live audience at Laugh Boston, was broadcast by The Moth Radio Hour on New York's WNYC. Christine lives in Pomfret, Connecticut with her husband and Virginia Woof-- their Springer spaniel-- in an old farmhouse that needs her.