The illness is also difficult to define: 'Depending on what specialist you go to, you can get a different diagnosis,' she explains.

Still, it's physically limiting: 'extraordinarily difficult to live with - and it's very unpredictable,' she says. Though Bailey's illness is debilitating, it is not very visible, she says.

And I also wanted to help other patients with my illness.' What Bailey did want to do, though, was 'write a sort of biographical thank you for the snail. 'I'm not somebody that ever wanted to write about myself or my illness.' 'I really have to lead a very, very quiet life,' she tells NPR's Scott Simon from her home in Maine. That nearly motionless mollusk became Bailey's companion - almost her surrogate.īailey, who uses a pseudonym due to her illness, has written a memoir called The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating: A True Story. Things changed for Bailey when a friend brought her a gift: a pot of flowers that also contained a wild snail the friend had plucked from the ground. The illness forced her to stay in bed, where she felt life was slipping by, unused. Though illness may rob us of vitality, sometimes it can also help bring us understanding - albeit in improbable disguises.Įssayist and short story writer Elisabeth Tova Bailey was struck with a neurological disorder that left her too weak even to sit up.

The sound of a snail