The Tincture of Time, Elizabeth L. Silver
The Tincture of Time, Elizabeth L. Silver
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The Tincture of Time
A Memoir of (Medical) Uncertainty

Author: Elizabeth L. Silver

Narrator: Elizabeth L. Silver

Unabridged: 7 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/25/2017


Synopsis

Growing up as the daughter of a dedicated surgeon, Elizabeth L. Silver felt an unquestioned faith in medicine. When her six-week-old daughter, Abby, was rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with sudden seizures, and scans revealed a serious brain bleed, her relationship to medicine began to change.

The Tincture of Time is Silver's gorgeous and haunting chronicle of Abby's first year. It's a year of unending tests, doctors' opinions, sleepless nights, and above all, uncertainty: The mysterious circumstances of Abby's hospitalization attract dozens of specialists, none of whom can offer a conclusive answer about what went wrong or what the future holds. As Silver explores what it means to cope with uncertainty as a patient and parent, she looks beyond her own story for comfort, probing literature and religion, examining the practice of medicine throughout history, and reporting the experiences of doctors, patients, and fellow caretakers. The result is a brilliant blend of personal narrative and cultural analysis, at once a poignant snapshot of a parent's struggle and a wise meditation on the reality of uncertainty, in and out of medicine, and the hard-won truth that time is often its only cure.


About Elizabeth L. Silver

Elizabeth L. Silver is the author of the novel The Execution of Noa P. Singleton, which has been published in seven languages. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney's, the Huffington Post, the Rumpus, the Millions, and elsewhere. She has worked as an attorney in Texas and California, and as an adjunct instructor of English literature and composition. She lives with her family in Los Angeles, California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Always on January 30, 2020

Elizabeth Silver writes a memoir about her experience when her infant daughter has an unexplained brain bleed and how she copes with the uncertainty afterward. Like a lot of memoirs the problem I had with this one is that I didn't really get much out of it. I know it's scary to have a child in the h......more

Goodreads review by Peebee on April 04, 2017

Elizabeth L. Silver came to my attention with her first book, The Education of Noa P. Singleton, which I found fascinating. I liked this book as well, but I do hope Silver will write more fiction. Her writing talent is undeniable, and I really enjoy the turns of phrase she employs. However, (and thi......more

Goodreads review by Amber on March 03, 2025

Closer to a 2.75. The author does have potential as a writer, and I'd be open to reading novels by her in the future. She does manage to capture some of the pain of parenting generally, through the lens of her experience of a v sick infant. I do not want to take away from what I'm hoping was an incre......more

Goodreads review by Kristin on June 19, 2017

Silver's engrossing amd well written tale about her daughter's brain bleed is a memoir and a history of medicine, with its inherent uncertainty in the face of our overwhelming desire for complete answers.......more

Goodreads review by Cyndi on April 29, 2017

In this brave, fierce, shattered, devastated tale of uncertainty, Silver takes us on a roller coaster ride! One moment up, the next down. One moment determined. the next full of uncertainty. But always with hope that there will be a tomorrow. Silver will touch you like no other author ever has. You w......more