Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope

Strong at the Broken Places is the remarkable story of five ordinary people trapped in the complex world of serious chronic illness.

In this intimate portrait, acclaimed journalist Richard Cohen probes lives of sickness as these individuals struggle to cope.

Cohen spent three years chronicling the lives of five diverse "citizens of sickness": Denise, who suffers from ALS; Buzz, whose Christian faith helps him deal with his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; Sarah, a determined young woman with Crohn's disease; Ben, a college student with muscular dystrophy; Larry, whose bipolar disorder is hidden within. Though different in age and gender, race and economic status, all are determined to live life on their own terms.

Though each individual's illness wreaks havoc in a different way, Cohen shows how their experiences are strikingly similar and offer lessons for us all—on self-determination, courage in the face of adversity and public ignorance, on keeping hope alive, and finding strength and peace under the most difficult of circumstances.