Andrew Leland’s Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2024, and our Iron Book Discussion Group will read and discuss it as their next selection in July 2026…
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BOOK DESCRIPTION
We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind: he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that ushers those who live with it from sightedness to blindness over years, even decades. He grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in. Soon— but without knowing exactly when—he will likely have no vision left.
Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Leland embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him: not only the physical experience of blindness but also its language, politics, and customs. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, “typical” life to one with a disability. Part memoir, part historical and cultural investigation, The Country of the Blind represents Leland’s determination not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it—to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening. Brimming with warmth and humor, it is an exhilarating tour of a new way of being.
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Copies of Country of the Blind can be picked up from the Book Discussion Shelf on our first floor.
An in-person discussion of Country of the Blind will be held at the library on Tuesday, July 14, at 6:00 PM. No registration is required, so please join us if you’d like to be part of the discussion.
Published on June 17, 2026.
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