The Inward Empire: Mapping the Wilds of Mortality and Fatherhood

by Christian Donlan

Overview

In the vein of The Noonday Demon and When Breath Becomes Air, a father's "remarkable and revelatory" account of navigating his own neurological decline while watching in wonder as his young daughter's brain activity blossoms, a stunning examination of neurology, loss, and the meaning of life. (The Sunday Times)

Soon after his daughter Leontine is born, 36-year old Christian Donlan's world shifted an inch to the left. He started to miss door handles and light switches when reaching for them. He was suddenly unable to fasten the tiny buttons on his new daughter's clothes. These experiences were the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis, an incurable and degenerative neurological illness.

As Leontine starts to investigate the world around her, Donlan too finds himself in a new environment, a "spook country" he calls the "Inward Empire," where reality starts to break down in bizarre, frightening, sometimes beautiful ways. Rather than turning away from this landscape, Donlan summons courage and curiosity and sets out to explore, a tourist in his own body. The result is this exquisitely observed, heartbreaking, and uplifting investigation into the history of neurology, the joys and anxieties of fatherhood, and what remains after everything we take for granted - including the functions that make us feel like ourselves - has been stripped away.

Like Andrew Solomon, Paul Kalathini, and William Styron, Donlan brings meaning, grace, playfulness, and dignity to an experience that terrifies and confounds us all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316509367
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	06/26/2018
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Christian Donlan is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The New Statesman, Edge Magazine, and Vice, among other places. He was born in the U.S. but now lives in Brighton with his family.

Table of Contents

1 The Inward Empire 3

The Marrow of the Skull: The birth of neurology and a basic guide to the brain 20

2 Lost 25

The Man Who Couldn't Open a Door: A guide to proprioception 61

3 Help Me 66

Phineas Gage, the Most Fatuous Neurological Patient in History 102

4 The Frankenstein Dance 106

The First Recorded Case of MS 140

5 The Dead Teach the Living 145

"I Only Observe, Nothing More": Jean-Martin Charcot and the discovery of MS 174

6 The Ghost on the Green 180

Myelin, the Mysterious-and Misunderstood-Substance at the Heart of MS 207

7 Hyde 212

The Viking Gene, the Equator, and Vitamin D: The hunt for the possible causes of MS 251

8 Inside the Tent 255

The Art of Diagnosis 284

9 The Explorers' Club 289

Notes on Sources 315

What People are Saying About This

New York Times bestselling author of The Organized Mind - Daniel Levitin

“An unprecedented first-hand account of the effects of brain disease, and what it is like to have your thoughts shift from under you. Donlan brings us a poetic, compelling and wonderful book. Simply enchanting.”

New York Times bestselling author of The End of Your Life Book Club and Books for Living. - Will Schwalbe

“In THE INWARD EMPIRE, Christian Donlan tells a riveting adventure story as he explores the mysterious paths that connect the body and the brain—and the scary and joyous land of fatherhood. He writes with vivid candor and startling humor about topics that range from the history of neurology to the maddening grey zone between illness and diagnosis. At its heart, this is a book of awe – at how the body works and doesn’t, how it grows and fails, and how even the most unwelcome events can sometimes help us break free from old ways of thinking to powerful new ones.”

Author of Charles Dickens: A Life - Claire Tomalin

“An amazing and wonderful piece of writing. I could not put it down.”

Author of Grief Works - Julia Samuel

“A wonderful, moving, powerful and immersive book which will help anyone who has or knows someone with MS. Christian Donlan takes us inside his mind and his beautiful relationship with his daughter, helping us to look at our own relationships from a fresh perspective.”

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/26/2018
In this earnest memoir, journalist and first-time author Donlan chronicles his efforts to “navigate the world” as his life changes in his 30s after two almost simultaneous events: the birth of his daughter and his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. He combines careful and unsparing accounts of the “Inward Empire” of experiencing MS—“a place that I am transported to when the truly weird stuff starts to happen”—with short descriptions of MS, how it was first discovered in the 1860s as a “disease of cities and factories,” and how it is currently treated. As he recounts trying to reconcile the “opposing sensations” that his MS onset has on his mental and emotional condition—“the fog of complete bewilderment, the toxic Zen of total comprehension”—he also carefully notes his daughter’s development over the first few years of her life, as a “different person was emerging, outlined by her new abilities.” But Donlan never forces the parallels between his life and his daughter’s; the way his family, friends, and doctors deal with his neurological decline leads him to a greater understanding of his role as a person and a father: “to face death and acknowledge its power, and to acknowledge the equal power of life.” This is a moving, gracefully written story. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Riveting...Donlan writes with vivid candor and startling humor about topics that range from the history of neurology to the maddening grey zone between illness and diagnosis. At its heart, this is a book of awe — at how the body works and doesn't, how it grows and fails, and how even the most unwelcome events can sometimes help us break free from old ways of thinking to powerful new ones."—Will Schwalbe, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Your Life Book Club and Books for Living

"An unprecedented first-hand account of the effects of brain disease, and what it is like to have your thoughts shift from under you. Donlan brings us a poetic, compelling and wonderful book. Simply enchanting."—Daniel Levitin, New York Times bestselling author of The Organized Mind

"Remarkable and revelatory, a dazzling achievement."—The Sunday Times

"An amazing and wonderful piece of writing. I could not put it down."—Claire Tomalin, author of Charles Dickens: A Life

"Really beautifully done; [The Inward Empire] reminds me of When Breath Becomes Air. I love it."—Kelly Corrigan, New York Timesbestselling author of The Middle Placeand Tell Me More

"In this age of compulsory happy endings, books such as [The Inward Empire] are so rare. Donlan manages to be utterly truthful without being depressing, and his passing observations about life in general are often funny...There's a toughness to Donlan's optimism that I couldn't help find rather cheerful, and his charming descriptions of fatherhood give [The Inward Empire]a pleasing energy and momentum."—The Times

From the Publisher

2018-04-11
A journalist debuts with an intimate account of his multiple sclerosis diagnosis and his growing awareness of his roles as a young husband and a new father.During the period covered here, Donlan, an American who lives in England, was writing about video games, and he escorts us around that world before his first symptoms appear. Then we travel with him on other journeys, medical and psychological. His chapters are mostly chronological, and following each is a more general section dealing with the history of the disease, descriptions of key patients, and evolving treatments. Donlan alternates between the changes in his own body and mind and those occurring in his young daughter, Leon. As his symptoms intensify—and as he moves from treatment to treatment (there are not a lot of options for him, we learn)—he also shows us the growth of Leon: standing, speaking, imagining, playing, and discovering the wonders of eyeglasses. In these clear, honest pages, the author displays an active curiosity about his illness and flexes some literary muscle, too. He memorized Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" (the actual one is nearby) to entertain his mother, and he quotes from T.S. Eliot and Robert Louis Stevenson, whose Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde he finds especially relevant to his situation. (He mentions a Hyde-like flare at his daughter that brings both of them to tears.) Donlan's wife emerges in these pages as little shy of a saint. She seems to know what to say (and what not to) and what to do (and not do). The author shows her as a wise, loving, compassionate companion. We also meet some of his medical team—and fellow patients—especially in a section near the end about his weeklong hospitalization for a series of infusions.In this poignant book, Donlan finds in curiosity, writing, and family the surest salves for the terror of chronic illness and mortality.

Kirkus Reviews