Michael Triska’s Dust in the Wind is a deeply personal memoir that recounts a life lived on the edge of hardship, heartbreak, and resilience. At its core, it’s the story of Katherine, the author’s wife, a talented and vibrant woman whose life was forever altered by a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis at the age of eighteen. Triska doesn’t just chart her medical decline; he details their love, their marriage, and their lifelong battle against poverty, prejudice, and abandonment. What unfolds is not just a chronicle of illness, but a testament to love, loyalty, and surviving in a world that too often looks away.

I was moved by the honesty in Triska’s writing. He doesn’t pretend to be perfect. He owns his fears, failures, and frustrations. That vulnerability gave the story its power. His pain seeps through the pages, but so does his love for Katherine. The depiction of Katherine’s strength, her passion for music, and her indomitable spirit even in the face of such suffering is inspiring and heartbreaking all at once. But more than anything, what got me was the anger. The unfairness. Watching family vanish when things got hard. Seeing a woman slowly robbed of her identity while society either mocked, ignored, or pitied her. It made me furious, and it made me care.

The writing is raw, and sometimes repetitive, but it pulls no punches. There’s no sugar-coating, no elegant prose, no grand metaphors. Triska tells it like it is. Some might find the tone intense or the sadness unrelenting. But that’s also what makes the book work. It doesn’t try to romanticize suffering. It tells the truth: about chronic illness, about poverty, about caregiving, and about the thin line between holding it together and falling apart.

I’d recommend Dust in the Wind to anyone who has ever been a caregiver, battled illness, or just needed to believe that love can survive even the darkest nights. It’s not a feel-good story, but it’s a real one. And sometimes, that’s even more important. Bring tissues because this one will leave a mark.

Pages: 70 | ASI N: B0DRDM49V6