(In)visible

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Pub Date 15 Sep 2022 | Archive Date 31 Jan 2023
Guernica Editions | Guernica World Editions

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Description

Diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome as a teenager, Adam, now a 26-year-old freelance designer, attends his first meeting at a social support group. Here he meets Anna, a charity worker with a face hemangioma, Marta a TV anchor with alopecia, and Eva a make up artist with vitiligo. The following week he moves in with them.

Shaped after the writer’s own experience of living with Tourette’s syndrome, Adam tries to move from self-inflicted invisibility to being visible—in his family, career, and personal life.

Invisible is a book about what it means to be different. A book that encourages acceptance and tolerance. A book about fear and escape, about the necessity of being loved and accepted. It’s about the permanent struggle with your complexes and attempts to start loving yourself. It’s about hard stories. But also about big hearts.

Diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome as a teenager, Adam, now a 26-year-old freelance designer, attends his first meeting at a social support group. Here he meets Anna, a charity worker with a face...


A Note From the Publisher

The main characters are all based on real people.
#OwnVoices novel about living with visible disabilities and disorders.
Ivan Baidak will be arriving in Canada via a refugee program in September 2022.

The main characters are all based on real people.
#OwnVoices novel about living with visible disabilities and disorders.
Ivan Baidak will be arriving in Canada via a refugee program in September...


Marketing Plan

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each book is being donated to Help Heroes of Ukraine.

A cross Canada tour to take place in September and October with readings and events in Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary. 

Best Book of 2020 according to PEN Ukraine.

Ivan Baidak is scheduled to participate in WordFest, Thin Air, TIFA, and other festivals in Canada in the Fall of 2022. Book giveaway TBA soon. 

Ivan Baidak is open to readings, signings, interviews, panel conversations, and other appearances.

Open to giveaways and cross promo opportunities. 

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each book is being donated to Help Heroes of Ukraine.

A cross Canada tour to take place in September and October with readings and events in Toronto...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781771838528
PRICE $17.95 (USD)
PAGES 150

Available on NetGalley

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Average rating from 11 members


Featured Reviews

Written with a direct and immersive voice, Baidak lets the reader slip into the lives of several people who've had to endure an onslaught of judgement every time they walk outside. From the narrator's Tourette's syndrome to the make-up artist with vitiligo, the reader feels firsthand that it's not the alopecia or Tourette's that creates the barrier, but the reaction of others. Uplifting and transformational, (In)visible is about the vulnerability that we all wish to hide and how empathy can repair so much hidden pain.

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I loved (In)visible so much. It tells us about four different people. A guy with Tourette syndrome, a girl with vitiligo, and two women with alopecia and hemangioma. I've never read stories about these things before, so it was an interesting experience. This book perfectly shows us that everyone is fighting with some inner demons and you should never judge any person by their appearance. I really liked how readers come to know that people with these conditions are more limited in their actions not because of those conditions, but because of the other people's reactions. I'd like everyone to read (In)visible to educate themselves on such an important subject of people's vulnerability.

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This book is a piece of fiction that reads as a non-fiction account of a social support group. Each of the characters have different stories about how they came to wish they were invisible and how they have hidden from life because of the fear of how others will experience their disability. Adam has Tourette's syndrome, Anna has facial hemangioma, Marta has alopecia and Eva has vitiligo. Together they journey through their past and pain to reach a place of understanding and happiness (well as much happiness as humans can attain, life still throws curve balls to everyone). This book is a beacon to the world for welcoming differences, and a reminder that some people wear their differences on the outside. We all struggle and many of us shut down for periods of our life because of those struggles. It is love for ourselves and from others that often pulls us out of the world of isolation and self-pity. This is a beautiful, quick, heartfelt story of how our hearts can save the world and how we are all stronger than we think we are.

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Even though the book (In)visible is a fiction book it reads like a memoir told from the perspective of four different people. Through their eyes you are able to see how their disabilities effect their daily thoughts.

This book was impressive and memorable. I am sure that I will read it again one day.

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first of all, i want to thank netgalley for bringing this book to my attention. i would like to think myself as a harsh reviewer - it is not often that i give a book five stars. and the fact that i knew this book was five stars from the very first chapter is MASSIVE.

the writing of this book is impeccable, despite it being translated, and allows you to dive into such an immersive voice of a few individuals in this book who face discrimination and judgement from others. the fact that the narration allows to see that it is not the conditions of the characters (tourettes, vitiligo, alopecia and hemangioma) as a problem, but the reactions of others, is amazing. i have a disability myself and i found that i related to some of the things that were shared across this book - i, too, find myself limited by others rather than myself.

this book highlights how important education is when it comes to these important subjects as those who experience them are incredibly vulnerable. the pain that each character faces generates a journey and i love to see that this book reminds people that inside we are all the same.

this book may be short, but it is definitely mighty. it is honestly one of the most beautiful books i have ever read. i want to thank ivan baidak for writing this and for representating neurodivergent and disabled people. the world needs more books like this.

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While short in length, it doesn't shy away from immersing the reader into the lives of individuals plagued with society's reaction to their unique identities. From Tourette's syndrome to alopecia and hemangioma, the author creates characters to try to examine what living with each condition feels like. I really enjoyed the way it read like nonfiction as well. I hope more books continue to inform about all the unique ways of existing as humans to normalize all experiences and push society to reevaluate how we all approach the unknown to show more compassion and less judgement.

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