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An Extraordinary Child, a Secret Kept from Pregnant Women, and a Mother's Pursuit of the Truth
by Megan Nix
A new classic memoir about a mother's fierce love for her exceptional child and her courageous journey to break the silence about a hidden risk to pregnant women.
After a seemingly uneventful pregnancy, Megan Nix's second daughter, Anna, was born very small and profoundly deaf. Megan and her husband, Luke, learned that Anna could have lifelong delays due to an infection from a virus they had never heard of: cytomegalovirus, or CMV, which Megan had unwittingly contracted from her toddler during pregnancy.
Megan was electrified by this knowledge. She had been warned, while pregnant, about the risks of saunas, sushi, and unpasteurized cheese, a lack of folic acid, and an excess of kitty litter. She knew to fear a slew of genetic syndromes she could do little to prevent. But she had not been told that CMV is contagious in the saliva of one out of three toddlers, spread through a kiss, a shared cup, a bite of unfinished toast. She had not been told that the stakes were high, that congenital CMV causes more birth defects and childhood disabilities—including blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and autism—than any infectious disease. Or that some of these disabilities are evident at birth, but others appear suddenly at age two or three and are never traced back to congenital CMV.
Remedies for Sorrow unfolds across the dramatic landscape of Sitka, Alaska, where Luke makes his living as a salmon fisherman. There, Megan struggles to meet Anna's needs and dives deeper into the mystery of why no one—not her OBGYN, not her toddler's pediatrician—had mentioned CMV, despite the staggering cost of this silence to families and children like Anna. From this rugged and beautiful place comes a memoir about the boundless capacity of mothers, the extraordinary child that is Anna, and the lifesaving power of truth.
"Nix is honest and forthcoming, an engaging writer with a gift for description. CMV is just beginning to get the attention it deserves from the medical world, and this timely and insightful account will help raise awareness."
—Booklist (starred review)
"[A] moving debut...In sharing the fears, frustrations, and challenges she has faced, the author lays bare both insidious medical paternalism and the dismal failure of public health policy. An inspiring memoir with an urgent message."
—Kirkus Reviews
"How did a virus that mothers pass to their children — one that leads to significant, sometimes tragic, lifelong effects — become, as Megan Nix puts it, 'nonexistent in the narrative of pregnancy?' Written with passion, wisdom and grace, Remedies for Sorrow is both a beautiful family story and an urgent call to action. An essential, moving, potentially life-altering book."
—Robert Kolker, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Hidden Valley Road
"Remedies for Sorrow might be the most powerful book you read this year. Megan Nix is a writer of grace, intellect and bravery. Buy it for every mother you know."
—Emily Rapp Black, New York Times bestselling author of The Still Point of the Turning World
"This is so much more than a book about medicine; it is a fierce, tender, intimate, beautifully written meditation on motherhood. The harsh beauty of Alaska and the intricate grace of her faith weave through Megan's story like silver and gold threads, invitations to sink deeply into the story of a life that is alternately heart-breaking and heart-healing—and that very much needs to be told."
—Cara Wall, author of The Dearly Beloved, a Read with Jenna pick
"This honest and beautifully written account of a child's potentially preventable disability from congenital CMV is a call to action for parents and medical professionals. More than that, though, it is a love story, a testimony to the power of the bonds between parent and child, family and community, human beings and nature, a writer and language. As a doctor, a writer, and a mother and grandmother, Remedies for Sorrow informed, moved, and inspired me."
—Dr. Suzanne Koven, author of Letter to a Young Female Physician
This information about Remedies for Sorrow was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Megan Nix's writing has appeared in The New York Times; The Washington Post; Brain, Child magazine; and elsewhere. A graduate of the University of Alaska Anchorage Master of Fine Arts program in nonfiction, Megan divides her time between Colorado and Alaska with her husband and young children.
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