"An arresting new memoir...."- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air Beverly Donofrio, author of Riding in Cars with Boys, says "Dizzy is a testament to the power of hope. Weaver's courage and strength are so inspiring they encourage the same in the reader. If all of that isn't enough, the beauty and agility of the prose may make you regret reaching the last page." In her early thirties, Rachel Weaver woke up dizzy and unable to function. She spent the next ten years seeing more than thirty medical practitioners before receiving a diagnosis, and then another eight years before finding relief from her condition. Dizzy is amedical mystery and a cautionary tale about our broken healthcare system. It is a story about learning to live with life's uncertainty, persevering in the pursuit of answers, and striving to find joy in an imperfect yet beautiful world.
Rachel Weaver is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel, Point of Direction, was chosen by the ABA in spring 2014 as a Top Ten Debut and awarded the 2015 WILLA Award for Contemporary Fiction. Her second novel, The Last Run, is due out in June 2026. Prior to earning her MFA in writing and poetics from Naropa University, Weaver worked for the Forest Service in Alaska studying bears, raptors, and songbirds. She is on faculty at Wilkes University's low-residency MFA program and at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. She lives in Colorado.
Cover Acknowledgments Author's Note Before Year One Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Year Two Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Year Three Chapter Nine Year Four Chapter Ten Year Five Chapter Eleven Year Six Chapter Twelve Year Seven Chapter Thirteen Year Eight Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Year Nine Chapter Sixteen Year Ten Chapter Seventeen Year Eleven Chapter Eighteen Year Thirteen Chapter Nineteen Year Sixteen Chapter Twenty Coda About the Author Back Cover
"An arresting new memoir...."-Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "Dizzy is a testament to the power of hope. Weaver's courage and strength are so inspiring they encourage the same in the reader. If all of that isn't enough, the beauty and agility of the prose may make you regret reaching the last page." -Beverly Donofrio, author of Riding in Cars with Boys "Dizzy is a memoir of the highest quality. It brings beauty and urgency to the overall necessary conversation about the U.S. medical system, while also functioning as a beautifully written literary memoir. This high-stakes story is spiked with moments of uncommon wisdom, poignancy, and deep emotion. I was moved to tears many times." -Erika Krouse, author of Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation "Dizzy evokes what life is in wreckage of chronic illness, with suffering compounded by abandonment by specialist medicine that has no means to care for those it cannot treat. Ill people will find a lifeline of companionship in Dizzy; healthcare professionals will face a challenge. Rachel Weaver never softens her story, and that gives it truth as a testimonial to the will to live fully in whatever conditions life throws at you." -Arthur W. Frank, author of At the Will of the Body and The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics
