The Laws of Invisible Things

by Frank Huyler

Overview

When newly qualified doctor Michael Grant makes an error, and a young girl dies unexpectedly in his care, a mysterious chain of events leads him to believe that he may have discovered an entirely new disease. Unable to convince his colleagues, he sets out to gather evidence but is quite unprepared for the direction his quest will take him-into the wilderness of disease, religion and mystery-a journey that will lead him to question not only his belief in the order of the world, but his own place and purpose within it. With real suspense and subtlety, Frank Huyler's first novel is written with the spare precision and grace of his much praised collection about his medical experiences, The Blood of Strangers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312424527
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	04/01/2005
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Frank Huyler is an emergency physician in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the author of the essay collection The Blood of Strangers (Picador).

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions
1. What is the role of mystery in the story? How does the book differ from conventional mysteries?
2. Who is the girl running in the woods at the end of the novel? What does she represent? Why do you think the author chose to end the story in this way?
3. What is the relationship between faith and science in the book? Do they have anything in common?
4. What is the role of race in the book?
5. Is Reverend Williams a good man? Is Ronald Gass? Is Michael Grant? How does the novel deal with questions of morality?
6. Early in the novel, Michael Grant goes to the beach and sees a school of bluefish feeding on the surface. Why is this scene significant? What are its larger implications?
7. Does the story have any parallels with Christian theology? If so, what are they?
8. There are many images of mirrors in the novel. How are mirrors related to some of the larger themes of the book?
9. Late in the novel, the illness is referred to as "just another whisper in the corner, another match struck in the underworld." What do you think the author means by this? What is the nature of the illness in the story? Is it real? Is it an allegory?
10. Ghosts appear in a number of places in the story. What purpose do they serve? What is their influence on Michael Grant?
11. In some ways the events of the story occur both in the everyday and in the underworld. Where is the cabin at the end of the book? Which world is it a part of, and why?

Editorial Reviews

This is no hospital horror tale, but an earnest inquiry into the ambiguities of illness and the morality of the medical profession....The intimate tone of Huyler's elegiac voice invites us to...think again about the things we think we know.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A compelling, curious book with rewards on nearly every page.” —The Economist

“Gripping...Huyler writes such subtly forceful prose...that his novel takes on a cool, uniquely powerful sense of dread.” —Chicago Tribune

“[We] had better hope that our caretakers have meditated on the wisdom and compassion of books like The Laws of Invisible Things.” —Boston Globe

“A cunning meditation on faith and its loss.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

“Chilling, subdued and scalpel sharp...deftly plotted, rich with psychological and ethical nuance.” —Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

Chilling, subdued and scalpel sharp, this debut novel by the physician author of The Blood of Strangers (1999)-a highly acclaimed collection of starkly realistic short stories set in the world of medicine-explores the hazy borderlines of sin and disease. Just out of training, 35-year-old Michael Grant is in his seventh month of practice with an established internist in a medium-sized North Carolina city when the young granddaughter of an African-American minister dies in his care. Because he thinks he might have been less than thorough in handling the case, he agrees to honor the minister's request to examine his son-the dead girl's father-who is also ailing. The exam reveals a curious white tendril-like pattern on the back of the patient's throat and inside his eye. Regrettably, before he has enough lab work to make a diagnosis, the patient quickly worsens and dies in a house fire. When Michael begins to experience similar symptoms and almost dies, too, he is convinced he has encountered an insidious new infectious disease. Unable to convince his colleagues, the disease-ravaged Michael embarks with Nora, his senior partner's daughter, on a quest to identify the nameless scourge. Evidence leads Michael to exhume the body of the elderly minister's granddaughter, and the trail takes them to a remote mountaintop. Deftly plotted and rich with psychological and ethical nuance, this fine debut succeeds equally as medical suspense novel and understated morality play. (Apr. 2) Forecast: The medical thriller is a well-established genre, but literary novels with medical themes are rarer. Readers who enjoy the essays of Abraham Verghese and Atul Gawande will find Huyler takes a similar tack in fictional form. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Emergency-medicine physician Huyler is also a poet and the author of the excellent essay collection The Blood of Strangers: Stories from Emergency Medicine. His first novel focuses on Michael Grant, a newly divorced doctor who has just moved to North Carolina and joined the practice of widower Ronald Gass, a much older physician. Grant's lonely personal life is soon in turmoil as it intersects with the black Williams family. Soon after his arrival, Grant treats the granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Williams; the little girl dies, probably due to an oversight by Grant. As a favor to the minister, Grant agrees to see his son Jonas, the girl's father, who has bizarre symptoms that Grant thinks may indicate a previously unknown disease; Gass is skeptical, almost scornful of this idea. Within days, Gass dies of natural causes, Jonas is dead from the disease, and Grant himself is hospitalized with the same symptoms. Huyler combines the melodramatic elements of a medical thriller with rich characters and the same fine writing and eye for telling details he demonstrated in his first book. In the process, he explores doctor fallibility, race relations, and the limits of both faith and reason. Recommended wherever good medical fiction is popular.-A.J. Wright, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A somber and moving fiction debut by Huyler (The Blood of Strangers: Stories from Emergency Medicine, 1999), who describes a young physician trying to trace the origins of a mysterious new disease. At 35, Michael Grant is trying to start a new life. Fresh out of medical school, residency, and a bad marriage, Mike has moved to a small city in North Carolina and joined a local practice. His partner, Ronald Gass, is experienced, patient, and somewhat cynical-a good mentor for a young practitioner. But Gass's wife died a few months after Mike arrived, and her grieving husband has since left nearly all of the work in Mike's hands. A while ago, Mike treated an eight-month-old baby, a girl who died of meningitis, possibly because he had not prescribed antibiotics before the diagnosis was in. Although he followed correct procedures, Mike was also careless, overlooking certain lab reports, and feels secretly guilty about the case. As a result, he agrees to treat Jonas, the dead child's father, for free when he comes in complaining of fatigue and hallucinations. During the examination, Mike notices strange discolorations on the inside of Jonas's mouth, white spiral markings that correspond to no known disease, and discovers that his blood count is dangerously low. Tests for AIDS are negative, and nothing in the standard medical literature describes Jonas's condition. Mike becomes excited, thinking that he may have discovered a new disease, only to be stymied when Jonas dies in a trailer fire a few days later. Though an autopsy confirms Mike's suspicions that he was venturing into uncharted waters, with the patient gone there is nothing for him to work on-until he starts to suffer the same symptoms.But Gass can't see the spiral discolorations on the back of Mike s throat. Has he really caught the disease (whatever it may be)? Or is he just losing his marbles? A genuinely eerie and suspenseful tale, narrated in a nicely understated tone that perfectly fits the characters and situations. Agent: Christy Fletcher/Fletcher & Parry

Kirkus Reviews