This Is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith

by Darcey Steinke

"It’s a blessing to live while Darcey Steinke is writing." — Maggie Nelson
"A work of art that could only have emerged from the crucible of truth... absolutely beautiful." — Elizabeth Gilbert
Darcey Steinke, acclaimed author of Flash Count Diary and Suicide Blonde, explores the world of pain for those who suffer and those who love them.

Steinke gets to the heart of pain with her usual brilliance, humor, candor, and empathy. In chapters that trace the body—The Spine, The Heart, The Knees, and more—she introduces sufferers to new and ancient understandings of pain through history, philosophy, religion, pop culture, and reported human experience. Leaving no stone unturned, Steinke takes readers under the knife, through the archives, and across oceans. She interviews working physicians, analyzes the writings of Frida Kahlo, recounts her own back surgery, and journeys to Lourdes, where she finds herself invited to participate in the famed pilgrimage site's rituals.

For readers of Joan Didion, C. S. Lewis, Sheila Heti, and Leslie Jamison, This Is the Door beautifully illuminates the experience of pain and its myriad effects on the body, mind, and soul. Whether you are hurting or know someone who is, whether your pain is somatic or spiritual, This Is the Door is a revelation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Biography Memoir, Disability, Medical

288 pages, Hardcover

Published February 24, 2026

About the author

Darcey Steinke is an American author and educator known for her evocative novels and thoughtful nonfiction. She has written five novels, including Up Through the Water, Suicide Blonde, Jesus Saves, Milk, and Sister Golden Hair. She is also the author of the spiritual memoir Easter Everywhere and Flash Count Diary, a meditation on menopause and natural life. Her fiction often explores the intersection of the spiritual and the physical, with two of her novels, Up Through the Water and Jesus Saves, selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Steinke has contributed essays and articles to publications such as The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Vogue, and The Guardian, and co-edited the essay collection Joyful Noise with Rick Moody. In addition to her writing career, she has taught creative writing at institutions like Princeton University, Columbia University, Barnard College, and the American University of Paris. Originally from Oneida, New York, and the daughter of a Lutheran minister, Steinke now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, journalist Michael Hudson, and their daughter. A former guitarist for the band Ruffian, she continues to explore the connections between art, spirit, and human experience through her work.

Reviews

[Books By Your Bedside · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've not read any of Darcey's books before and so had no expectations coming into it.

As someone who has a chronic illness or two, and in turn, chronic pain, I find it so difficult to put into words what that pain is like, even to people experiencing the same thing but Darcey has managed it very well.

I thought it was going to be more about her health and her experiences with pain, and there is that - and there's more as it goes along - but it is predominantly about the history of pain, and what other people in history thought of pain. Which is fine, very interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'd have liked a bit more of that personal angle. Having said that, she has been very honest and open and shared some of her most difficult experiences with us.

What I did particularly enjoy was the positive spin she added. When you're in that much pain, it can be hard to see anything other than misery and negativity, and I have never thought of it in relation to positivity, yet Darcey has managed that which was a revelation.

I read it in a day - the first day of a five-day hospital inpatient stint as it happened. Nonfiction books can often be dry and difficult to get through, but I devoured this as if it was a novel.

What I liked was that she hasn't just focussed on physical pain, she has also talked about the pain of the soul or of heartache, which is obviously harder to prove medically. I have never had my heart broken romantically, but when my Dad died, the first thing I thought was how painful it was in my chest, like my heart really was breaking.

It isn't an easy book to read, and it obviously has a lot of difficult subjects. There are a few illustrations and I'd have preferred some more to really add depth to her words. But overall I'd say there is this undercurrent of hope running through.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Is the Door by Darcey Steinke is a different type of topic than my usual read. It is about pain across different areas in our bodies by chapter, for example, our spines, hearts, knees, etc. Steinke discusses how pain and really our thoughts about pain intersect. She does not minimize anyone's pain, but shares experiences that she herself, as well as others, have had with medical professionals. She relates how religion and spirituality can affect our perception of pain.

None of us can truly understand another person's pain, but this book gives us reasons to be generous with our empathy. I know someone who described her mother as a "hypochondriac". When I asked how she was doing, apparently she was dead. Must have been a pretty bad case of hypochondria.

We all need to be more understanding of others' suffering, and we should give ourselves room to heal when we need to. This Is the Door reminds us to be empathetic.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the prepublication copy to read and review.

[Debby Binns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this memoir -the abridged version on BBC Radio 4. I thought it was excellent. The author had done her research well and it was very informed about chronic pain. I thought she struck a good balance about what real physical pain is and how it makes you feel and also how it could ruin you if you let it.

[A N N A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

This is a non fiction kind of memoir, but also a historical and scientific look at pain.
I really enjoyed learning with this book, it was written in a way that made the science easy to understand, and the inclusion of trans people as well as the nod to the inequality of medicine for Black people (many doctors still believe to this day that Black people feel less pain than white people which is a racist myth from the Slave Traders).

As someone who suffers with Fibromyalgia, I found it to be honest, interesting and in a way comforting.

[Evelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author frames the book as being about pain drawing from her own experiences with back pain. Almost half of the book is devoted to discussing pain as it relates to specific body parts and organs, ie, the spine, knees, heart, brain, skin, and breast. The conversations are often only marginally or tangentially related to the subject matter, and disorganized as they veer from a discussion of historical diagnosis and treatment, to the experiences of the author and her parents, which are mostly biographical in nature, and occasionally that of other individuals, to faith related experiences.

The book then goes totally off-track as it discusses heartache, suffering, soul and healing in chapters focused more on faith than on the pain people are suffering. Several of the chapters in this segment such as the one on healing would have been better-served as essays or magazine articles because they are poorly linked to the subject matter. To cite one example the author’s experiences at Lourdes add little to the subject of healing since they offer no solutions for the reader who may be perusing this book to find hope and means for possibly alleviating their own pain.

The book rates 2.5 stars.

[Emmie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really glad I picked this up on a whim.

Interestingly, in America, it's subtitle is "The Body, Pain & Faith", not "Notes from a Body in Pain". Had it been the latter, I might have hesitated to buy it, and at first I felt a little misled, but the more I read, the more I understood that faith is so intrinsically linked to the experience of pain. How had I not realised that before? Stienke does a great job of exploring this connection (from both ends of the spectrum) without the prose ever veering into preaching territory.

I do think that some inclusions were a little self-indulgent, chief amongst them, an almost entire page reserved for an "illustration of the author's heart tattoo" -- that added nothing to the chapter that couldn't have been briefly referenced via text, in my opinion.

Overall, the book allowed me to view pain from all sorts of perspectives, and for that I am thankful. I finished the final page feeling more attuned to my own struggles, and hopefully, to the struggles of those around me, too.

[Russell Ricard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. Darcey Steinke's This is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith. A sweeping account that is equal parts memoir, historical medical reportage, interview, and journalism.

An impressive breadth and depth of research and references across multi-disciplines including literature, music, science/medicine, historical lay persons as well as religious figures.

Deeply self-reflective and soulful. And at the same time, Steinke nurtures empathetic space for emotionally insightful stories of the mind-body connection of others who have journeyed through pain. Powerful and haunting; yet also surprisingly hopeful about what binds our shared humanity, and an exploration of ways in which healing finds its way into life’s process.

[Riley Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the three—body, pain, and faith—it’s pain, true pain, that is undoubtable. One can doubt, in a classroom-way, the existence of the body, etc. Faith involves doubt by definition. But true pain is of a different order. It’s beyond skepticism. No one is agnostic about it. Darcey captures this perfectly.

I’m excited to be speaking with her about this wonderful, instantly unforgettable book.

[Jennifer Loschiavo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This makes you feel seen, not alone, and also well informed about chronic pain. A reasonable balanced book about what real physical pain is and how it makes you feel and how it can ruin you if you let it. Some very relatable information in this book. Worth the read.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final chapter moved me to tears.

[Waverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book so moving and beautiful. This Is the Door is a nuanced study of pain and spirituality, with the writer's perspective complemented by a chorus of literary, scholarly, and everyday voices. This book will stay with me forever. I cannot recommend it highly enough!!