Publication Date: September 15, 2026
On the surface, Corinth Eaton’s life is going according to plan. She is succeeding in her third year of medical school and in a serious relationship with a man she intends to marry. In reality, Corinth is barely afloat, struggling with debilitating anxiety and depression, as well as the recent death of her father. A split-second decision results in her suspension from surgery rotation and reassignment to Maxwood, the state psychiatric institution where her grandmother was a patient for decades. When Corinth discovers Granny’s chart at Maxwood, she’s desperate to make sense of the narrative in its pages—events her family refuses to discuss. Corinth had only ever known Granny as docile and incoherent from years of medication and institutionalization, unable to provide her own account. But Corinth’s rotation at Maxwood might just allow her to connect with her grandmother in ways she couldn’t before.
Blooming from the seeds of author Erin Miller Reid’s family history, But for Fortune follows two women fifty years apart as they attempt to give voice to their own silenced realities. What unfolds is a whirling intergenerational exploration of mental illness, discrimination, and the insidious nature of family secrets. Writing in lush prose and drawing on her own experiences as a doctor, Reid weaves together a story that is at once incisive, heartfelt, and deeply human.
Two women, generations apart, connect through an unknown family tragedy.
Author Erin Miller Reid introduces a seemingly unrelated dual-storyline in But for Fortune. Corinth, a third-year med student, struggles with a sense of inadequacy combined with depression.
Meanwhile, the story shifts to the past, featuring Mary Esther, a young fatherless girl who marries young instead of pursuing a career as a pianist. Eventually, she ends up in and out of the local mental institution, where brutal treatments sap away her personality.
When Corinth is suspended from her surgical rotation and ends up picking up a mental health rotation, the pieces begin to fall into place and connect. What ensues is a redemption story to find the truth behind Mary Esther’s alleged descent into madness.
But for Fortune may get off to a slow start, but after a few chapters, it will steal your attention.
Erin Miller Reid is a writer and physician from southeastern Kentucky. Her work has appeared in North Carolina Literary Review, Still, Appalachian Review, Women Speak:Women of Appalachia Project, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, 100 Days in Appalachia, and the anthology Troublesome Rising: A Thousand-Year Flood in Eastern Kentucky. She earned her Master of Public Health and Doctor of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, and her graduate certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University.
