The Illness Lesson

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By Clare Beams ’04

Published Aug. 13, 2020

In her novel The Illness Lesson (Doubleday), Clare Beams ’04 writes the suspenseful story of a 19th-century school for women in New England where mysterious ailments start to cripple the student body and the school’s co-founder, Caroline, must choose to defy her family and social norms to protect her students from increasingly harmful male influence.

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PAW's October 2026 cover, featuring a photo of a loaf of challah bread and the headline "The Braids That Bind."
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