Narrative Non-fiction · Hardback

Previously Healthy Man

Norwegian title: Tidligere frisk mann

Tore Rem

On 5 January 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 passed, 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 voice, the award-winning writer comes unusually close to the experience of being ill. At the same time, Previously Healthy Man 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 our 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 medical language, about vulnerability, and about our fundamental human frailty. Along the way, 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 Healthy Man has become an unusually powerful story about life seen from the perspective of the sick.

«Through narrative, the author explores illness, life, and death in a way that extends beyond his personal microcosm, opening onto a larger human experience which the reader can recognize, relate to, and ultimately gain from. The literary references are a goldmine!»Halldór Gudmundsson

«Tore Rem’s story is a shocking encounter with illness, medication, and brutal side effects. […] Rem has given us a philosophical and literary history of illness. He connects his own experiences with what others have thought and written before him.»Samtiden

«Previously Healthy Man is so well written that it would have been worth reading if it only was about Tore Rem's rare heart disease. The fact that the author takes the opportunity to say something more general about what should be improved in the Norwegian health care system makes one wish that the book would become a public reading.»Bok365, five/six stars

«One of the most beautiful things in the book is when Rem writes about and reflects on how he has become more dependent on the people around him. […] Previously Healthy Man is definitely worth reading. It will do you good.»Morgenbladet

«Previously Healthy Man should be read by as many people as possible, both inside and outside the health care system. ... The book does not offer ready-made solutions, it conveys experiences that provide a basis for policy. ... The book is daring, also in that one of Norway's most award-winning non-fiction authors shows weakness, vulnerability.»Klassekampen