Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Zero at the Bone: Rewriting Life after a Snakebite
    Zero at the Bone: Rewriting Life after a Snakebite
    Zero at the Bone: Rewriting Life after a Snakebite
    Ebook297 pages5 hours

    Zero at the Bone: Rewriting Life after a Snakebite

    By Erec Toso

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Late one evening in the summer of 2003, Erec Toso arrived home to his wife and children after an ordinary day at his university office. In the darkness of his yard, a rattlesnake lay along the path, basking in the post-monsoon coolness. Toso, lost in thought, never saw the snake, which struck him on the foot and injected a huge dose of venom.

    Zero at the Bone is a deeply personal narrative about Toso’s physical recovery and emotional transformation following this near-death experience. In elegant prose that inspires as much as it unsettles, Toso takes the reader along with him on his expedition into the uncharted territory of cellular damage, hallucination, and ultimately profound spiritual awakening. On all levels, it is a book about pain. Toso spares no detail in his accounts of agonizing hospital procedures, in his revelations about rattlesnake lore, or in his descriptions of the wide-ranging effects of snake venom. But quickly the reader realizes that the physical pain of the snakebite is only the more tangible marker of the psychological pain and turmoil that Toso endures in the emotional journey that ensues.

    In the months that follow his terrifying attack, priorities, daily habits, family relations, and definitions of self all come into question. What is predictable becomes problematic; what is comfortable becomes disconcerting. In a story that hinges on a common fear about an unlikely event—that of a snakebite—Toso uncovers a more widespread reality that many of us do not fear enough—complacency.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Arizona Press
    Release dateJun 14, 2022
    ISBN9780816549177
    Zero at the Bone: Rewriting Life after a Snakebite

    Related to Zero at the Bone

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tuskers

      Jul 1, 2018

      Tuskers
      9 min read

    • Article

      Escaping the Noise

      May 28, 2020

      Escaping the Noise
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Symposium on Childhood

      Sep 1, 2021

      A Symposium on Childhood
      25 min read

    • Article

      Hurricane Mind

      Mar 22, 2022

      Hurricane Mind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Nov 1, 2023

      loved best. Words I have neversaid. New sentence, at 80. Of coursenot more than his children, and their children. That goeswithout saying—but I want to lay down eachelement of love’s house. First,the hole, under—apple cellar, potato cellar,cellar to

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Cape Unfolds

      Dec 14, 2018

      The Cape Unfolds
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Souvenir of Me

      Nov 15, 2022

      A Souvenir of Me
      4 min read

    • Article

      Dark Tales

      Dec 2, 2021

      Dark Tales
      6 min read

    • Article

      Retriever of Souls

      Nov 25, 2021

      What they don’t say is that, sometimes God will call you to the wilderness, gesture toward the trees, and then, hang back and wave you on alone. —“Prayer for the Wretched Among Us” from The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded At nig

      18 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems by Brenda Shaughnessy

      Dec 15, 2017

      Watching little Henry, six, scoop up blueberriesand shovel them into his mouth, possessed. I’m so glad I brought blueberries—wish my kidscould/would eat them. Cal can’t; Simone won’t. Henry’s sisters, Lucy & Jane, took turns feeding eachother goldfis

      3 min read

    • Article

      Song Of The Woods

      May 23, 2022

      Song Of The Woods
      7 min read

    • Article

      This Will Put You To Sleep

      Aug 7, 2020

      IT STARTS ON A CRISP WINTER NIGHT. OUTSIDE IT’S dark and cold, the grass already coated with a thick, white layer of hoarfrost. Inside I sit—wrapped in a blanket, drinking my hot chocolate, surrounded by the orange glow of candlelight, with lavender

      4 min read

    • Article

      This Will Put You To Sleep

      Aug 7, 2020

      IT STARTS ON A CRISP WINTER NIGHT. OUTSIDE IT’S dark and cold, the grass already coated with a thick, white layer of hoarfrost. Inside I sit—wrapped in a blanket, drinking my hot chocolate, surrounded by the orange glow of candlelight, with lavender

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Seven-Year Cycle

      Jul 5, 2022

      The Seven-Year Cycle
      8 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Sep 1, 2019

      Here in my hand a cone from the beautiful eastern white pine sitsan offering from the tree planted thirty years ago after earth softened upcome spring enough to dig a hole roughly twice the size of the burlapball around the root of it. The cone measu

      3 min read

    • Article

      Notes From A Nothing

      Feb 14, 2020

      Notes From A Nothing
      13 min read

    • Article

      Noctuary

      Sep 2, 2021

      Noctuary
      11 min read

    • Article

      On Healing

      Sep 4, 2020

      In 2016 my partner and I bought a wooden cottage on 10 acres of land, on an ecotone where the woodlands meet the foothills of the mountains. The area had been logged relentlessly in the 1950s. One by one, the tall trees of the old growth cedar forest

      7 min read

    • Article

      On the Trail

      Feb 14, 2018

      MARY ALLEN is the author of a memoir, The Rooms of Heaven: A Story of Love, Death, Grief, and the Afterlife (Knopf, 1999). She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship

      7 min read

    • Article

      Journal Entry 1940

      Feb 28, 2018

      Journal Entry 1940
      3 min read

    • Article

      Quantum Physics for Mothers

      Dec 15, 2020

      Quantum Physics for Mothers
      10 min read

    • Article

      Running With The Bear

      Jun 11, 2018

      Running With The Bear
      10 min read

    • Article

      WINNERS APRIL 2021 STORY CONTEST A New Beginning

      Sep 1, 2021

      Tyler Rich, age 10 Grand Junction, CO The cage door opened. As I gazed into the forest, the memories came rushing back. Fire. Everywhere. Amber spirals licking at my fur, scorching my pelt. No escape. Hands. Then, darkness. I shrank farther back into

      8 min read

    • Article

      On the Trail

      Feb 7, 2018

      MARY ALLEN is the author of a memoir, The Rooms of Heaven: A Story of Love, Death, Grief, and the Afterlife (Knopf, 1999). She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Zero at the Bone

    4.5/5

    3 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Zero at the Bone - Erec Toso

      bbook_preview_excerpt.htmlm|ۖFrb_%kfF0êp777nw?|pK%+ ?]wݵ8v}Ykws ˭] څ.1.]I5vsw X!X4v%q^F\K ]] [ng]k'n}Kԛc7>iE^4TN-ק=Ě5ۢ)5XP+wik)vcz#-t ޹t?u__=z &0@,'wfX.+7>Z^+-MX`^EFxv=;皏+%東]- sb7 0%G<>Fn Z6ǯ_ n-0*3 :`+Y׊w+k]ʏPzwlZk?bgfVƙ[Oʿ-rWoY;#U378WZ偧;vjZ 0s cbeӽȳ% <~ >zjSW=6Mk-}'>Y e+d eOKiq0.Fij􄲭\bOMf<9!P\DFs͋lwX;#o9,B<mluyY=t7NߺDw% H3T/% @˶]3XM]hٖӮVi!sh,Gɜ3IW V9Gśsz̈̎%tyb> !]toƮ>1;1Qi,RWx E"koXn.\\#DiKIjdJGX.\eP d^GY`Xho1o@/瑙o̜ H,r"^@$_Z Ӊ(!ܝGz"J7%{Dٿ@zmD ҈\20#W\Yss<bFb\yE)7Mv!1 +`BIXED'B@ñ=u}I=08$c4.$%P]@ ܇5%ABG=@G(ĹWyVBB^ VIP 9"}Aٿ{xoi~ay<jPNV:ªf̬D<(6]pkk  # &瘇(u[r su>2C"{,9#Q8?;IK5)2*_tHQs軯s↺)1V+"iR| ht?6j/dahpZZyzu- I1sz^߷VUЪ2@A&x۾@(T@ ƄWhഽ0|O&;OޥO 2{dkiƐPd5FȔZblXE[.o%KSڌ6-Z L2!/eu^ͱ)} b09n,;9{-@-a\꟠3.ܣ:#5.ܩD%sy%&TW8W$ru$ 4U(H*ծ10]ĩwfT%n#O(Q( Vf/&j1oi%Vλ%# omkH#0iLA% NT$XzxxY@SI%l1ྎB8en`me(,.Oo.|= !1U~~LkWlcXbY\ =ެ-.r /|M[YLvxCaH}!hL$t '=дzAFl}EId'T1Y8y @eT@ŵK, bEy(02I kwuzL>y/S8qd`DJ-]rLNRW[BdZ`\nuN~K,5CICaI),JvLI\js&2KÔ 3+*S8):.`T/G@3AB7}^xq/ c𵐧T`-EjJxIʉ㮞}^8'`׊r -S2,) ܿ'l!Ԅ@# %/[{Tx~`vy7۝$G׷n$,(^oupy|eZpZ$sh jjס$ 2|&-ԤAYB GWX-Uug鯷L!Fn #mnFiȳYѭgB-Op'I)msPn.1dֺlA}=bHaі+ %<wN! KNx9|%K ^UѥMzVt^ ߫jyzC݆_D@ybN .#\Ɇc>Xǘ`$^x^W L>fӏ,pwFICK! }`_7ŦFyZ Z~m RUEpT5T"̗5wzL$2NlҲj"qb%`d;ʀI -)jfJbڃm{^Mҽ/KIκUMqKj).g-~Z* -|[JE%y8awCPUvM OVC/mc|ZyRZX4e+)OeR7Vv.J4 ٟr-viثI2^CZTmSV|S2goέia>IndV'0PWQT6!lk{nLMޑrnGB}ꅫ.~8 ۖW裤`v5왆9N}Dy#N̗Ѱ2M:E EvT$3Y㺋/ZS*䥒JS>zy SV*yύT})~b[M_绨Zak{!:i`܅?6e g qbE[8bI-08y5Xi(ʗ\3KρnLm=%7| )% njQb`<* G%jW2vbaښ$G>&j : J9E8Ÿ=A]n8d{ԨA*SS usX IפX,g8W4vWtD2Gb>Фˏ݆{ Yd*I~TRM!o' ֲ,mOc,j7NYKb95jn25Z0or5oDQ*oMR\nr`#^'Fmz$>!MR\h$rRUX$Wc[0\Qɘ1Q5J=VF2ExPoV'x)zR)X`NOм!6.O9TuH`z"C&Na%Jз$.B?q85Jse0/GKw%XYzCu˃ P$(Xp+z5E1+~R,u;Yv^$h~uYњO̺A-m)N*xQáZTk"8v % FdG v搗,k1dqUvA$)b0V$m8M%~ԛjz3=m1YʱM07 8[O#tnҢ`Es`fcD %epfE$BAE)Tײ ?SUҙE-Gտp["(*]έhkQ F\)Z{~̻ryM}&;_t'qkc\i(t0K3MS۩MhGRSq jIsȻ:𢆸Gchѳ'[H~'ƯiVamC{|~Y. 5F45IyeFyyC u }o՚7)%<;7dbuC70f) 4uTbqR3s;>+_j,5?);QTdKEq;m]KhDwz^ŧBg>^O8mePY=i>t\[7)BsgD^ߒ"]g'ʇbY!GPXz?w=N'gC\uñ馜W)QwRu݀:Wc-,V9urY^"Ȼu.*-'ttnOg\Di1u1I|_\џu9y&KtX~աď!c0"@?{VuAnN[X3[;]faT7MD#5[.L-hݛ:QY{2|{8c8IlιVxu,n[=2f_4jJ -jJU,'"Sٜ >yCW^·21}"0m36FYl.:3\ wOsªx/v&Jϙo p -Fyu7ZEc cC,WRDm [Z6;6Ig&!^r(OHm=#LQi%V?F>aS6c)K-x}f[kf[_P6^hSֹ32 FlFN#):ލ)+҃:{j((Tc9 UmS{a6JHza7$!͟WG6y}+}m5DRXJHpk3e J8K#s$ޮ+[ .!fSI7 mܦL[ؖc뜘㤈f 9=^;_Xk7qwvR`mn]ڃmY?ſ^ɠ^Fl˃>a^ _LaCˋԛUK-n I+\;r *HZkA?%0a[גB2QO;k>SyLl4?d?sA)ŰaGug"pX _sŗ@I|6O ҀO.!6o2lgzOI4C=Zr#xf72\m뛗|zhq i҆Dzh^+ՄC<H# wF.+;,كt܆<l)E~/<;y9/b5i{|.FUOsfRJl]Ci̫}0ٳ(co6\7фNi<kHq2Ĥ} *>^88;㷘zDc\2G/Fl/0Yil=#"[,jY/\=h [e{%d/],aϫX[-_H^?鉚=}݆Re#giD MhBN?0{ 5Tanp!f-6bzj ` >Fa%FP鬟pk2ZdCu[:s3^ƞc7,Ck<#,,L K6m91YpE}ysޗ vu YTRX6eӎo36vx6'eKQ_rLmV69o9T>Aez;GNh8ɮsvS;q#}]}sW6s(KkbTo˷"3pr c5tR
      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1