Description
by Palmer, Abi | Language
Published 20/04/2020 by Penned in the Margins
Paperback
Abi Palmer will be joining Alice Hattrick to discuss Alice’s debut Ill Feelings on Wed 8 Sept at 7pm (UK time). You can get tickets here.
A young woman spends a month taking the waters at a thermal water-based rehabilitation facility in Budapest. On her return to London, she attempts to continue her recovery using an 80 pound inflatable blue bathtub. The tub becomes a metaphor for the intrusion of disability; a trip hazard in the middle of an unsuitable room, slowly deflating and in constant danger of falling apart.
Sanatorium moves through contrasting spaces – bathtub to thermal pool, land to water, day to night – interlacing memoir, poetry and meditations on the body to create a mesmerising, mercurial debut. ‘There is a dreamlike quality to Abi Palmer’s exquisite Sanatorium. In lucid, gorgeous prose, she tells the story of a body, of illness and of navigating the complicated wellness industry, but ultimately this is a book about what it means to be alive.
‘A striking, experimental debut that will stay with me.’ Sinead Gleeson
Shortlisted for The Barbellion Prize 2020
