January 5th 2014, the writer Tore Rem collapsed while playing football. His life was saved by his teammates, but it turned out he was suffering from a rare disease, a disease that attacks the heart, causing life-threatening heartbeat rhythm disturbances. Suddenly, Rem was a citizen in the realm of the sick.

In the years that have since passed, Tore Rem had to learn how to live with uncertainty, while undergoing a tough treatment regime with countless medicinal side effects. Not least, he has felt the effects of cortisone transforming his body, including his face. Several times, death has brushed against him.

This is a story of illness, the story of what transpired. By searching out a new, personal and literary voice, the award-winning writer comes unusually close to the experience of being ill. At the same time, Previously in good health consists of a series of reflections about what being ill does to a person, about how it can give you a sharper look at everyday life, a new consciousness about being in the world, and about how the illness is necessarily something we share with people around us. It’s about trust, loneliness and community, pain and near-death experiences, about meetings with the public health care system and the medical language, about vulnerability, and about our fundamental human frailty. Underway, the reader gains insight into fascinating aspects of medical history, and Rem shows how literature and reading may be resources when facing critical illnesses.

Previously in good health has become an unusually powerful story about life seen from the perspective of the sick.