Lyrysa Smith’s sister, Molly, got a severe brain injury from carbon monoxide poisoning. Her husband died lying next to her in the hotel bed. After nine days in a coma, Molly emerged. But not the Molly that Lyrysa knew.
Her new book, A Normal Life: A Sister’s Odyssey Through Brain Injury, is not a story about recovery. Molly got better, then worse, and then simply different.
Lyrysa tells the story of her sister’s brain injury—its impact on her, their close relationship, and their entire family. She looks to how they were all turned inside out and forever changed by the harrowing complexities of this most damaging and mysterious of injuries.