When Force Meets Fate: A Mission to Solve an Invisible Illness

'[Hill's] memoir serves to amplify the ways in which disabled people are neglected by the American health system.' -- Kirkus Reviews

At age twenty-two, Jamison Hill was a fitness instructor who could lift more than four hundred pounds. Five years later, after surviving a tragic car accident that killed the other driver, a rare disease left Jamison bedridden and too weak to hold a water glass. He spent every day lying motionless in bed, his body paralyzed by pain and fatigue, his mind hijacked by flashes of crunched metal, broken windshields, and exploding gas tanks.

After months of not being able to speak or eat, Jamison's health finally improved and he began to tell his story. When Force Meets Fate is an unflinching exploration of the human condition, notably how our strengths and limitations shape our identities, and how unexpected events can inevitably alter our perceptions. It's a story of perseverance―of sheer will and unrelenting fight―but also of overcoming life's toughest challenges through the power of vulnerability, and how freeing it can be to surrender to the unpredictability of circumstances out of our control.

'The gripping prose in this memoir describes a young man, whose life deteriorates from a healthy fitness trainer to the sudden depths of being sick and bedridden with a mysterious illness for years. Jamison's dedication to life, however fragile, and advocacy, however impossible, have brought out this incredible story of survival.' ―Stephanie Land, New York Times bestselling author of Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive