An innovative book, When Fiction and Philosophy Meet explores the intersection between the philosophy of Simone Weil from Paris, France, and the fiction of Flannery O'Connor from the Southern state of Georgia, USA. In an era of war, of unprecedented human displacements, and of ethnic, racial, and religious fears the ideas of these two intellectuals bear on our present condition. Both women keenly desired to perceive the realities of good and evil inherent in human existence and to bring this truth to the consciousness of their contemporaries. Embracing their belief that truth is eternal but must be transposed and translated, generation after generation, in language appropriate to each age, the authors acquaint O'Connor readers with concepts in Weil's religious philosophy as seen in O'Connor's stories. Doering and Johansen simultaneously illustrate how Weil's philosophy, when embodied in fiction, reveals the lived realities of the human condition across time and space. Simone Weil and Flannery O'Connor were audacious thinkers with inquiring minds who held clear and firm religious convictions. Each applied her understandings of enduring spiritual truths to the challenges of nihilism and social oppression as seen in the spreading totalitarianism and the distressing legacy of slavery throughout human history. Both Weil and O'Connor crossed disciplinary boundaries and influenced their respective fields with innovative ideas and artistic expressions. Taking their cues from these writers, Doering and Johansen bring these two remarkable women into a four-voiced dialogue-Simone Weil and Flannery O'Connor with Doering and Johansen-by engaging each writer in the forms of her own genre and inviting readers to enter a dialogue of courage with Weil and O'Connor in the postmodern and post-Christian world.

"An extraordinary story that you will pick up and finish in a few hours of remarkable reading. The account of her son's and her family's regeneration is simply inspiring. It will be instructive to any family with a child with a disabling condition. But as the account of a transfiguring experience and the sensitive interpretation of how it came about, it speaks to all of us."--Arthur Kleinman, Harvard Medical School, author of "Writing at the Margin"

"Ruthann Johansen's loving account of the aftermath of her son's traumatic brain injury is an extraordinary book, . . . at once a profound meditation about the inextricable relationship between language, story-telling, and self-formation and a moving account of how one young man reconstructed his life in dialogue with the solicitations and offerings of family, friends, and caring others. This book should be read by everyone who is interested in the nature of identity and selfhood."--Janice A. Radway, Duke University, author of "A Feeling for Books: The Book-Of-The-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire

"This book clearly asks the question: Who speaks for the traumatically brain injured? It should be required reading for all neuroscientists who are providers of care or who are diligently conducting research to find a therapy that truly produces recovery of function."--David A. Hovda, Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of the Brain Injury Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles

"A singular contribution to our understanding of brain injury as illness experience, of the family dynamics of care, and of the narrative nature of lives and brains. The writing is lyrical, moving, and scholarly, not by turns butat the same time. Johansen conveys mother love, feminist self-awareness, and a critical social perspective to provide a unique account of family life through continuing trauma."--Arthur W. Frank, author of "The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics

"This book is gripping and inspired. . . . It will be of great solace and usefulness to others who find themselves in such circumstances, part of the literature of family disaster. It will find an audience as well among all those concerned with what might be called the construction of the self, which would include a good many in various psychological fields."--F. Robert Rodman, author of "Not Dying: A Memoir