When Ollie, quite literally, picks Daphne up in a bar, he thinks she’s anormal San Francisco girl. And in most ways she is normal – she has a job that sometimes gets her down, loves a beer and to shoot pool, struggles with the moral conundrum of speaking to homeless people, and likes it when a boy likes her. But Daphne has a condition that causes her body to shut down and enter paralysis when she experiences anything like an extreme of emotion. So, things like falling in Love aren’t easy.
Will Boast’s new book imagines the myth of Daphne and Apollo to modern day America. Through Daphne’s account of her daily life and her burgeoning relationship with Ollie, he explores issues of invisible illness and disability, the defences we put up in life, and how emotions are experienced in the body.
Published on Granta books.