"Disturbances of the Mind: A depiction of Neurological and Psychological Illnesses in Counting Backwards,” a conversation with Binnie Kirshenbaum moderated by Carlie Hoffman.

Wednesday, November 5th, 2025, 6-7pm EST

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We have the honor of hosting Binnie Kirshenbaum, the author of one story collection and eight novels, including Rabbits for Food (2019), a darkly comic depiction of a clinically depressed woman and her subsequent breakdown and, Counting Backwards (2025), which chronicles the lives of a middle-aged woman and her husband who is suffering from early-onset Lewy body dementia. Counting Backwards begins with hallucinations. From their living room window, Leo sees a man on stilts, an acting troupe, a pair of swans paddling on the Manhattan streets below. Then he’s unable to perform simple tasks and experiences a host of other erratic disturbances, none of which his doctors can explain. Leo, 53, a research scientist, and Addie, a collage artist, have a loving and happy marriage. They’d planned on many more years of work and travel, dinner with friends, quiet evenings at home with the cat. But as Leo’s periods of lucidity become rarer, those dreams fall away, and Addie finds herself less and less able to cope with an increasingly unbearable present.

If you are unable to join for any reason, a recording of our Virtual Narrative Medicine rounds will be made available following the live session on the Narrative Medicine YouTube channel.