A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir

A dazzling memoir of chronic illness that explores the fraught intersection between pain, language, and gender, by a debut author.

Emily Wells spent her childhood dancing through intense pain she assumed was normal for a ballerina pushing her body to its limits. For years, no doctor could tell Wells what was wrong with her, or they told her it was all in her head.

In A Matter of Appearance, Wells traces her journey as she tries to understand and define the chronic pain she has lived with all ...