THE AFFLICTIONS

THE AFFLICTIONS is a brilliant collection of phantasmagorical diseases excerpted from an imaginary medieval encyclopedia. Linking the tales is a dialogue between the master librarian and a young apothecary, and there is a distinct Borgesian feel to the work.

Shadowing an elderly librarian on his first day at the great Central Library, Máximo is thrilled to get a peek at the exclusive Encyclopedia of Medicine. It's a dizzying collection of maladies: an amnesia that causes everyone you've ever met to forget you exist, while you remain perfectly, painfully aware of your history. A wound that grows with each dark thought or evil deed you commit but shrinks with every act of kindness. A disease that causes your body to imitate death, stopping your heart, cooling your blood. Will the fit pass before they bury you-or after? As Máximo soon discovers, medicine at the Central Library may be more than he bargained for. The Afflictions is a magical compendium of pseudo-diseases, an encyclopedia of archaic medicine written by a contemporary physician and scientist. Little by little, these bizarre and mystical afflictions frame an eternal struggle: between human desire and the limits of bodily existence.

Vikram Paralkar was born and educated in Mumbai, moved to the U.S. in 2005 and is currently a physician specializing in hematology-oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has won awards and published research in many medical and scientific journals.