Dyscalculia

A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation

An epic meditation on loving yourself in the face of heartbreak, from the acclaimed author of Build Yourself a Boat, longlisted for the National Book Award

When Camonghne Felix goes through a monumental breakup, culminating in a hospital stay, everything - from her early childhood trauma and mental health to her relationship with mathematics - shows up in the tapestry of her healing. In this exquisite and raw reflection, Felix repossesses herself through the exploration of history she'd left behind, using her childhood "dyscalculia" - a disorder that makes it difficult to learn math - as a metaphor for the consequences of her miscalculations in love. Through reckoning with this breakup and other adult gambles in intimacy, Felix asks the question: Who gets to assert their right to pain?

Dyscalculia negotiates the misalignments of perception and reality, love and harm, and the politics of heartbreak, both romantic and familial.