Winner of the Center for Fiction's Doheny Prize "His way is with humor, optimism, courage and probing introspection, the very characteristics — combined with crisp prose and a rare and innately interesting medical condition — that make this a winning literary debut." — The New York Times Book Review Raucous family memoir meets medical adventure in this heartfelt, hilarious book exploring the public and private theaters of illness. After a tumor bursts in Mike Scalise’s brain, leaving him with a hole in the head and malfunctioning hormones, he must navigate a new, alien world of illness maintenance. His mother, who has a chronic heart condition and a flair for drama, becomes a complicated model as she competes with him for the status of "best sick person." The Brand New Catastrophe is a moving, funny exploration of how we define ourselves by the stories we choose to tell. Mike Scalise 's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Agni, Indiewire, The Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships and scholarships from Bread Loaf, Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, and was the Philip Roth Writer in Residence at Bucknell University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Publishers Weekly , Top Ten Book for Fall 2016 in Memoir & Biography Buzzfeed Books , “The 32 Most Exciting Books Coming in 2017” Electric Literature , "8 Books About the Reality of Living with Chronic Illness" Baltimore Sun , "The Best Books for Summer 2017" Read It Forward , “17 Books We’re Excited to Read in 2017” The Coil , "Best Books of 2017" "His way is with humor, optimism, courage and probing introspection, the very characteristics―combined with crisp prose and a rare and innately interesting medical condition―that make this a winning literary debut.” ― The New York Times Book Review “An offbeat, witty memoir. . . . Scalise is unsparing in recounting his reaction to his diagnosis while keeping the reader engaged in a story about catastrophe. . . . Sensitive and well-written.” ― Publishers Weekly “Fascinating and engaging. . . Scalise's narrative verve and brisk prose create a winning chronicle of illness, recovery, and 'courageous defiance.' A frankly written debut memoir that captures all the fright of a medical calamity and the humor and grace necessary to survive it.” ― Kirkus Reviews "In his memoir The Brand New Catastrophe , Mike Scalise meditates with crackling wit and self-awareness on chronic illness, family, and the clichés of catastrophe stories." ― Kenyon Review " The Brand New Catastrophe charts Scalise’s life with acromegaly, a tumor-based pituitary disorder which traffics excess growth hormone throughout the body, but there’s just as much incisive writing on the more universal trials of being a son, a brother, a midwesterner. . . making for a book as much about ostensibly healthy people as their purportedly sick counterparts. . . . [ The Brand New Catastrophe 's] passages are teeming with vulnerable humanity, comedy which never seems forced, and jaw-dropping moments nestled in quiet scenes." ―Pete Tosiello, Kenyon Review “The effects of illness on self-image and its gravitational pull on family, friends, and spouse are touchingly detailed in this upbeat health memoir.” ― Booklist review "Scalise’s book will bring you to tears and to laughter, and from the first word to the last, it’s. . . unflinchingly honest." ― Electric Literature , "8 Books About the Reality of Living with Chronic Illness" "Despite the seriousness of the subject, The Brand New Catastrophe manages to be as funny as it is smart about mortality, the fragility of our bodies, and understanding the worst things that happen to us." ― Buzzfeed Books “ The Brand New Catastrophe reveals the human experience of acromegaly with a beautiful and skillful clarity, rendering the rare and misunderstood disorder with an intimate, personal grace.” ― Literary Hub “[Scalise] artfully balances coruscating wit with gritty realism...This is the most entertaining book about a brain tumor you’ll read for a while. . . . A thoughtfully conceived and skillfully executed debut.” ― Electric Literature “Despite his careful tracking of his own illness, Scalise’s memoir is not the narrative of a catastrophe. . . Scalise’s acromegaly is more recognizably a strain of Seneca’s asthma or Susan Sontag’s cancer. It is a point of departure for a work that is as much about idleness, the slow progression of treatment without climax, and the ways in which we form identities that embrace, as much as resist, what inflicts us. . . . Sublime.” ― The Iowa Review “A unique account of living with acromegaly.” ― Daily Mail "Putting his cards on the table from the start, Scalise not only challenges us to judge his book according to his own criteria, but asks us to consider the conventions of the genre he is writing in and what purpose―both positive and negative―these serve. . . . The firs