Book details

The Good Patient

A Novel

Author: Kristin Waterfield Duisberg

The Good Patient

The Good Patient

$12.99

About This Book

Brilliant, acerbic, funny, and relentless, Darien Gilbertson appears to have it all: a successful career, a husband who loves her absolutely, and all the material comforts of a New York life. But...

Page Count
288
On Sale
05/13/2014

Book Details

Brilliant, acerbic, funny, and relentless, Darien Gilbertson appears to have it all: a successful career, a husband who loves her absolutely, and all the material comforts of a New York life. But Darien is in trouble – on the run from her emotions, and from a past that resurrects itself in acts of self-mutilation she neither understands nor cares to explore. After years of good behavior, Darien is hurting herself again. And this time it's so brutal that her husband, Robert, cannot help but recognize the woman he adores is unraveling before his eyes.

Darien has a history with therapists. She knows exactly what they want – and need – to hear. She has made a game of psychotherapy, spinning outrageous fictions, exposing her doctors' vanities, knowing when to reveal just a little of the truth. When Robert brings her to Dr. Lindholm, she is ready. But in Dr. Lindholm Darien may have met her match: a caring psychiatrist with the patience and skill to see beneath her façade. At once intrigued and resistant, Darien engages Dr. Lindholm in a battle of wits, sure only her pride is at stake. When she stumbles instead upon a buried truth about herself the consequences are devastating, threatening her marriage, her identity, and what she understands about life and love.

Kristin Waterfield Duisberg's The Good Patient is about interiors and exteriors, knowledge and perception, the treachery and triumph of memory. Written in razor-sharp, sparkling prose, it is a story that takes dead aim at a question we all fear: how well do we really know the people we love?

Imprint Publisher

St. Martin's Press

ISBN

9781466870987

Reading Guide

In The News

“An intense and moving debut about a young woman's nervous breakdown and slow recovery. ...Mercifully light on the psychobabble: a sharp and unsentimental glimpse of emotional collapse and recovery, narrated with compassion and a welcome sense of humor.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

About the Creators

The Good Patient

The Good Patient

$12.99