Inside the Halo and Beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery

Here is a singular story of survival, an earthly miracle wrought by family devotion, gardens, horses, guts. A compelling read.—Carolyn HeilbrunIn July 1998, when Maxine Kumin's horse bolted at a carriage-driving clinic, she was not expected to live. Yet, less than a year later, her progress pronounced a miracle by her doctors, she was at work on this journal of her astonishing recovery. She tells of her time inside the halo, the near-medieval device that kept her head immobile during weeks of intensive care and rehabilitation, of the lasting rehab friendships, and of the loving family who always believed she would heal. [S]he resonates wisdom while announcing a triumph of body and soul.—Anne Roiphe, New York Times Book Review Maxine Kumin brings the sensitivity and imagination of a poet to her extraordinary ordeal.—Richard Selzer, author of Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery From a singular experience she has created a lesson that is universal, which, it seems to me, is the essence of being a poet.—Abraham Verghese, author of The Tennis Partner