Unfixed - by Kimberly Warner (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

When the tide of hidden truths and an unsteady body collide, one woman's search for home becomes a journey of reclamation, resilience, and the enduring power of forgiveness.

"Warner's poetic prose and intimate descriptions of her inscape while grieving... plunge readers directly into her reality." --Publishers Weekly, Editor's Pick

"Genre-defying... A gripping, often literary memoir that ruminates on life's unfixable complications."--Kirkus

What do you do when the foundations of your life--family, identity, and health--begin to crack beneath your feet? In Unfixed, Kimberly takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the uncharted waters of family secrets, chronic illness, and the relentless search for truth and forgiveness.

When Warner's seemingly stable world begins to unravel, she discovers that her father--a figure both present and painfully absent--harbors a long-buried secret. This revelation propels her into an emotional labyrinth of discovery, forcing her to confront the ghosts of her past and redefine the meaning of home, family, and self.

Set against the backdrop of Warner's battle with an elusive and debilitating illness, Unfixed is a deeply intimate exploration of resilience and vulnerability. Warner masterfully weaves together threads of personal struggle and universal themes, painting a portrait of a life in flux that will resonate with anyone who has ever sought clarity in chaos.

At its heart, Unfixed is a story of reckoning--not only with the haunting specter of a lost father but also with the body's betrayal and the limits of medical certainty. With the lyricism of Dani Shapiro's Inheritance and the rich emotional depth of Where the Crawdads Sing, Warner crafts a narrative that is both gripping and profoundly moving.

Through luminous prose and unflinching honesty, Unfixed reveals the beauty and heartbreak of uncovering truths that were never meant to be found. It is a celebration of the human spirit's capacity to adapt and thrive in the face of the unknown, offering readers a poignant reminder that even in the most unfixed of lives, there is room for hope, connection, and self-discovery.

Perfect for readers who find solace in stories of resilience and transformation, Unfixed invites you to walk alongside Warner on a journey of uncovering, unraveling, and ultimately rebuilding.

Review Quotes

Publishers Weekly

Editor's Pick

Warner's closely observed, intense memoir explores questions of heredity and identity. When Warner loses her father, David--a doctor--in a motor vehicle accident, she reacts with numbness, just as she had responded to the casual revelation from her mother Nancy, that she may not be David's child. Though outwardly an overachieving, well-adjusted youngster, Warner's inner world is chaotic, and her major decisions--like career choice and life partners--are attempts to get closer to her dad. But when her brother Eric gives her a DNA kit, the tests reveal he is only her half-sibling. This prompts a quest that surprises even Warner in her readiness to "forge ahead with this new information... to walk on coals."

Warner's poetic prose and intimate descriptions of her inscape while grieving the sudden loss of her father plunge readers directly into her reality. Her attempts to carve a career in medicine as a legacy that "has" to be followed, and her affinity towards men who in some way resemble her father, make profound sense. Warner's partner Dave stands out as a pivotal figure in her life; caregiving takes a heavy toll, and readers will admire Dave's commitment to his intellectually disabled daughter Syd--and his support of Warner during the worst days of her undiagnosed illness, later found to be a rare neurological disorder known as Non-Motion Triggered Oscillatory Vertigo.

Warner's attempt to let things remain unsolved, to just be, and to avoid always needing to be in control will resonate with readers tired of living in an everything-can-be-fixed world. This evocative, deeply immersive memoir reiterates that people process grief in different ways, sometimes taking decades to come to terms with it. Those who seem fine may not always be, and the mysterious DNA structures we carry within us encode more into our beings than we will ever know.

Takeaway: Engrossing memoir of loss, heritage, and identity.

Comparable Titles: Dani Shapiro's Inheritance, Margo Reilly's When You Shake the Family Tree.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

--PW Staff Reviewer, Publishers Weekly

A debut memoirist's life is turned upside down by a devastating medical diagnosis and the revelation of a family secret.

In 2014, Warner fractured her pelvis during a bicycle accident. The immobilizing injury, she writes, was "just the beginning of [her] profound state of undoing." Shortly after the accident, she would be diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder--Mal de Débarquement Syndrome--which she describes as a type of vertigo in which her brain perceives solid ground as water. Feeling "out at sea, bobbing, sinking," the author would also become psychologically unmoored after learning that the man she had grown up calling "dad" was not her biological father (who died in a shipwreck on Lake Michigan). Her medical condition, combined with the revelation of her true parentage, prompted Warner to look back at her life, from her childhood to her obsessive skin-picking as a teenager, through a new lens. While the book has the hallmarks of a traditional memoir, including autobiographical vignettes and intimate reflections, the work's genre-defying form makes it unique--the text includes reconstructed scenes that take place before Warner was born, original poetry, and letters written to her biological father. The book's opening chapter reads like a scene from a novel, with detailed descriptions of the moment in 1974 when the author's mother first met Warner's charismatic biological father, Charlie, and her parents' open marriage (prompted by her father's infidelity). Perhaps the most poignant elements are the author's letters to Charlie, dated from various points in her life (from childhood through adolescence into adulthood), and in which she reconstructs her past with knowledge of Charlie's existence. Reminiscing about a childhood memory of Lake Michigan, she writes in one letter, "I pictured my refuge at the bottom of the lake...I didn't know you were already there." Both accessible and poignant, this is a powerful reflection on identity, memory, and family.

A gripping, often literary memoir that ruminates on life's unfixable complications.

--Kirkus Staff Writer, Kirkus Reviews

"Genre-defying... A gripping, often literary memoir that ruminates on life's unfixable complications." --Kirkus

--Kirkus Staff Reviewer, Kirkus

"Chilling. Horror. Warner's words are so powerful, I felt as if I were going through the experience with her." - Sara Davidson, New York Times Bestselling Author

--Sara Davidson, New York Times

"Tremendous writing. The unease is inescapable." - Kenny Farquharson - The Times, Edinburgh

--Kenny Farquharson, The Times, Edinburgh

An "Engrossing memoir of loss, heritage, and identity." --Publishers Weekly

--PW Staff Reviewer, Publishers Weekly

Kimberly Warner's writing is simultaneously lyrical and piercingly sharp. Her story --one of family, belonging, chronic illness, and ultimately love and self-acceptance--enveloped me. She recounts her journey with an openness that invites us all in and allows us to feel the aches, the uncertainty, and the triumphs alongside her. I was transfixed by her words, swept along by a sense of shared humanity and resonance, and I am grateful for the experience. This book is a gift.

Annie Brewster, MD

Founder and Executive Director, Health Story Collaborative

Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

Author of The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss

--Annie Brewster, MD, unfixedmedia.com

About the Author

Kimberly writes and speaks widely, serving on editorial boards, hosting panels at esteemed institutions, and contributing to medical education initiatives. Recently, Kimberly shared her serialized memoir, Unfixed, on Substack, quickly gaining a devoted readership as it resonated deeply with those navigating their own challenges. She continues to publish weekly essays, interviews, and videos, exploring meaning within adversity and the value in what we might reflexively dismiss.