She Danced with Lightning: My Daughter's Struggle with Epilepsy and Her Boundless Will to Live

By Marc Palmieri

Book Overview

Part family memoir, part medical mystery involving severe epilepsy, She Danced with Lightning follows one girl's battle to persevere as a competitive dancer, culminating in a terrifying decline, a courageous performance, and an eleventh hour, life-saving brain surgery.

Eleven-year-old Anna has lived all her life with severe epilepsy. Despite the ravage of thousands of violent seizures and heavy medications, she has thrived at school, athletics, and her greatest passion--dance. As she approaches her twelfth birthday, Anna's condition takes a dire turn. Her health declines quickly and a new diagnosis is revealed, leaving the family only one excruciating choice. A parent's memoir about the medical mysteries of epilepsy and the personal suffering of raising a child with a deadly health condition, She Danced with Lightning is told from the perspective of Anna's dream-chasing father, who comes to learn from her a strength and courage he never imagined possible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1637584202
• ISBN13: 9781637584200
• Release Date: August 2022
• Publisher: Post Hill Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Fathers worst nightmare; His Daughters Reality.

This was such an incredible book, I really appreciated how honest Marc Palmieri was about his emotions and experiences throughout the process of telling his daughter’s story. I think sometimes we forget about the caretakers or parents of people who have these debilitating disabilities. We don’t think about how they may be coping with seeing their loved ones suffering. We also don’t think about how they are often just expected to carry on with life as if everything is okay. I really enjoyed reading how Anna was willing to push herself to achieve her goals, even if it meant having set backs or falling. (Or In her case a seizure). As someone who also has seizures, it took a long time for me to get out of my head and go after things I wanted. It took even longer to over come the fear of having a seizure and choose to still live my best life! To read Anna’s journey and see how much she’s overcome at such a young age was truly inspiring.