Recovery

The Lost Art of Convalescence

By: Gavin Francis

Narrated by: Gavin Francis

“An essential book for our times, full of wisdom, compassion and sound advice. Every patient needs a copy of this gem.” –Katherine May, author of Wintering and Enchantment

A gentle, expert guide to the secrets of recovery, showing why we need it and how to do it better

For many of us, time spent in recovery—from a broken leg, a virus, chronic illness, or the crisis of depression or anxiety—can feel like an unwelcome obstacle on the road to health. Modern medicine too often assumes that once doctors have prescribed a course of treatment, healing takes care of itself. But recovery isn’t something that “just happens.” It is an act that we engage in and that has the potential to transform our lives, if only we can find ways to learn its rhythms and invest our time, energy, and participation.

Drawing on thirty years of medicine, and on insights from practitioners, psychologists, and writers across history, physician Gavin Francis delivers a profound, practical, and deeply hopeful guide to recovery. Rejecting the idea that healing is passive, Recovery offers tools and wisdom for convalescence, and shows how tending to our bodies, environments, and perspectives can help us move through the landscape of illness—and come out the other side whole.

Critic reviews

"Francis sheds nuanced light on an often fraught and private experience, and encourages readers to reimagine illnesses as 'stories of the mind and body' because 'within limits, stories can be rewritten.' Those on the mend may gain the most, but readers of all stripes will find wisdom here." –Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Recovery is an essential book for our times, full of wisdom, compassion and sound advice. Every patient needs a copy of this gem.” –Katherine May, author of Wintering and Enchantment

"Healing can be maddeningly slow work, Gavin Francis recognizes, but it offers us the opportunity to live differently. Beyond the fantasy of the quick and easy cure is the reality of living with and through our physical limitations, which requires creativity. Recovery offers inspiration and advice for practicing this lost art. Throughout, Francis is alert to the political and economic forces that undermine our efforts." –Eula Biss, author of Having and Being Had and On Immunity

“We spend too much time thinking about illness and hardly enough thinking about recovery and recuperation. Gavin Francis’s literary talent combined with his years as a seasoned medical practitioner make Recovery a unique and delightful read.” –Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water and Cutting for Stone

"Recovery is an excellent book about the long, difficult, and often interesting way back from illness to health. Gavin Francis writes with clinical wisdom and grace about doctors and patients—their expectations, strengths, and vulnerabilities—and suggests ways to navigate and learn from convalescence.” –Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., Dalio Professor in Mood Disorders and Professor of Psychiatry at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

excellent

Loved this book. Very easy to listen to. Appropriate material on convalescence. It's not something we do well as a culture.

Generally good though difficult to listen to

I heard of this book from an NPR podcast and it seemed interesting. “The Lost Art of Recovery”. The author has a few interesting tales of convalescence from his patients and some actionable tips at the end. It is part reflection part self help. Overall, I did enjoy the insights he had on healing; I was able to get the gist. My main complaint may be the author’s accent. There is a charm to his soft doleful tone but at times it can get difficult to comprehend the finer details of each chapter.

good book, impossible to understand reader

often I enjoy it when an author reads their own book. not in this case. a few times throughout this short book the author was obviously coached to speak up and speak clearly, but for the most part and through almost the entire book he mumbles and it's very difficult to understand