Twelve Rivers of the Body by Elizabeth Oness
Winner of the Gival Press Novel Award
Overwhelmed by the growing AIDS crisis and the pressures of medical residency, Elena Tristani abandons an outwardly successful life and takes a job writing grants for The Spirit Gate, a holistic clinic that treats recovering drug addicts with acupuncture. Fascinated by the clinic’s founder, who treats Georgetown’s elite and drug detox patients with the same imperturbability, Elena reconsiders her own views on medicine and health. As Elena comes to know the world of the clinic, she is seduced by an ancient Chinese medical text, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, and begins to see a different relationship between Eastern and Western medicine as well as a new path for herself.
“Twelve Rivers of the Body is an engrossing, provocative portrait of one woman’s odyssey to find meaningful work and her place in the world. Elizabeth Oness’s graceful style is at once precise and luxuriant as she follows Elena from her disillusionment with allopathic medicine into the realm of acupuncture and Taoist philosophy… Twelve Rivers of the Body is an examination of contemporary health problems, a meditation on urban community, and a moving spiritual journey.”
—Valerie Miner, author of After Eden and The Low Road
Winner of the 2007 Gival Press Novel Award "Twelve Rivers of the Body lyrically evokes downtown Washington, DC in the 1980s, before the real estate boom, before gentrification, as the city limped from one crisis to another-crack addiction, AIDS, a crumbling infrastructure. This beautifully evoked novel traces Elena's imperfect struggle, like her adopted city's, to find wholeness and healing."-Kim Roberts, author of The Kimnama
Winner of the Gival Press Novel Award
Overwhelmed by the growing AIDS crisis and the pressures of medical residency, Elena Tristani abandons an outwardly successful life and takes a job writing grants for The Spirit Gate, a holistic clinic that treats recovering drug addicts with acupuncture. Fascinated by the clinic’s founder, who treats Georgetown’s elite and drug detox patients with the same imperturbability, Elena reconsiders her own views on medicine and health. As Elena comes to know the world of the clinic, she is seduced by an ancient Chinese medical text, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, and begins to see a different relationship between Eastern and Western medicine as well as a new path for herself.
“Twelve Rivers of the Body is an engrossing, provocative portrait of one woman’s odyssey to find meaningful work and her place in the world. Elizabeth Oness’s graceful style is at once precise and luxuriant as she follows Elena from her disillusionment with allopathic medicine into the realm of acupuncture and Taoist philosophy… Twelve Rivers of the Body is an examination of contemporary health problems, a meditation on urban community, and a moving spiritual journey.”
—Valerie Miner, author of After Eden and The Low Road
Winner of the 2007 Gival Press Novel Award "Twelve Rivers of the Body lyrically evokes downtown Washington, DC in the 1980s, before the real estate boom, before gentrification, as the city limped from one crisis to another-crack addiction, AIDS, a crumbling infrastructure. This beautifully evoked novel traces Elena's imperfect struggle, like her adopted city's, to find wholeness and healing."-Kim Roberts, author of The Kimnama
Winner of the Gival Press Novel Award
Overwhelmed by the growing AIDS crisis and the pressures of medical residency, Elena Tristani abandons an outwardly successful life and takes a job writing grants for The Spirit Gate, a holistic clinic that treats recovering drug addicts with acupuncture. Fascinated by the clinic’s founder, who treats Georgetown’s elite and drug detox patients with the same imperturbability, Elena reconsiders her own views on medicine and health. As Elena comes to know the world of the clinic, she is seduced by an ancient Chinese medical text, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, and begins to see a different relationship between Eastern and Western medicine as well as a new path for herself.
“Twelve Rivers of the Body is an engrossing, provocative portrait of one woman’s odyssey to find meaningful work and her place in the world. Elizabeth Oness’s graceful style is at once precise and luxuriant as she follows Elena from her disillusionment with allopathic medicine into the realm of acupuncture and Taoist philosophy… Twelve Rivers of the Body is an examination of contemporary health problems, a meditation on urban community, and a moving spiritual journey.”
—Valerie Miner, author of After Eden and The Low Road
Winner of the 2007 Gival Press Novel Award "Twelve Rivers of the Body lyrically evokes downtown Washington, DC in the 1980s, before the real estate boom, before gentrification, as the city limped from one crisis to another-crack addiction, AIDS, a crumbling infrastructure. This beautifully evoked novel traces Elena's imperfect struggle, like her adopted city's, to find wholeness and healing."-Kim Roberts, author of The Kimnama