The Sight Sickness

(iUniverse) Faced with an epidemic of “the white sickness” — an apparently contagious plague in which random citizens become blind — the government rounds up those afflicted, caging them like animals in lawless and inhumane quarantine facilities in this novel. When the crisis finally subsides, the officials in charge of this government response are put on trial — and acquitted. Unsatisfied with the verdict, a vigilante group responds by kidnapping seven people and keeping them blinded so that they can experience the fears of those blinded in the plague. The Sight Sickness is an “anti-sequel” to the Nobel-Prize winning thriller Blindness , by Portuguese writer Jose Saramango. In a personal response to the public fear of blindness, Grassman shows that with the right attitude and the right techniques, blindness is manageable. Blind since birth, Grassman is a mother of two, a teacher, and an attorney.