Arthur W Frank Oxford University Press, 2022, HB, 176pp, £18.99, 978-0192846723

‘I’ll teach you differences ... ’ King Lear, Act I, Scene IV.

Arthur W Frank’s The Renewal of Generosity and The Wounded Storyteller are books that have made a huge impact on my medical practice. Frank now turns his attention to Shakespeare’s King Lear, acknowledged to be one of the greatest plays in the English language, and combines perceptive psychological insights with their application to the experience of serious illness.

Frank starts by …