Literary Fiction, Family Fiction
Date Published: October 13, 2026
Miracle Grow of the Mind is a funny, heartbreaking exploration of
parenthood, disability, medical bureaucracy, Big Agro, food allergies, and
environmental pathogens. When Amy and Michael’s son is born prematurely,
they are thrust into a world of pediatric neurologists, sensory reintegration
therapy, and endless evaluations.
Michael also struggles with a mother suffering from dementia, who insists he
is the grown-up version of a brother who died in infancy. When the Kafkaesque
Bureau of Preschool Special Education threatens to make their son repeat
kindergarten, the family must confront how they are living and decide which
therapies—everything from Mel Finkelstein’s sensory reintegration
sessions to pediatric neurologist visits—are worth the emotional toll.
“Everyone should read this miracle of a book. Carol LaHines is a
fearless writer. With brutal honesty, laugh-aloud-humor, faultless dialogue,
understanding, and ultimately with great empathy and compassion, she portrays
all our misguided efforts to control our bodies, our children, and our
lives.” —Sheila Kohler, author of award-winning novels including
Bluebird, Cracks, and Becoming Jane Eyre
About the Author
Carol LaHines’ debut novel, Someday Everything Will All Make Sense, was
a finalist for the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel and an American Fiction
Award. Her second novel, The Vixen Amber Halloway (Regal House 2024) was a
gold medal winner in the Foreword Indies awards, a finalist for an American
Fiction Award and the Pencraft Award, and a Shelf Unbound notable indie, and
was featured on NPR and C-SPAN. Her fiction has appeared in literary journals
including Fence, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Denver Quarterly, Cimarron
Review, The Literary Review, The Laurel Review, North Dakota Quarterly, South
Dakota Review, The South Carolina Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Sycamore
Review, Permafrost, redivider, Literary Orphans, and Literal Latte. She is a
Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of the Lamar York Prize for Fiction.
Her short stories and novellas have also been finalists for the Mary McCarthy
Prize in Short Fiction from Sarabande Books, the David Nathan Meyerson fiction
prize, the New Letters short story award, and the Disquiet Literary Prize,
among others.
Ms. LaHines’ eldest son Dylan was born with Pierre-Robin sequence. His
condition, which can lead to breathing obstruction and is potentially fatal,
went undiagnosed and was compounded by other egregious medical errors, as a
result of which Dylan was medically challenged and severely disabled, at least
as defined by society. Having navigated these labyrinthine, Kafka-esque
corridors herself, she was moved to write this book as a testament to him and
all the other families like hers who have coped with an indifferent medical
bureaucracy. Miracle Grow is also laced with the satire, acerbic commentary,
absurdist subplots, and the tragic-comic sensibility Ms. LaHines is known for.
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