Chaser is a book of poems that grows from the troubling premise that each of us lives in a state of pre-diagnosis. Our bodies are never under our control, and when illness strikes we must redraw the boundary between the well and the unwell, interacting with the world differently. In these poems, the experience of illness is applied to individuals, communities, economic systems, and travel between nations. In bracing, electric language and form, the book’s three threads — one following a group of patients and a character known as Invalid, one examining a scientist’s study of tuberculosis, and a third examining the language of manic economy — explore different notions of consumption, wellness, discovery, and growth.
