Read this: "Seabiscuit" author Laura Hillenbrand's chronic-fatigue battle

(Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Since age 19, Washington writer Laura Hillenbrand has suffered chronic fatigue so severe she rarely leaves the house; it's a triumph to take an entire shower standing up. Recently, she and her husband "drove to the alley at the end of their block so she could see something other than the cemetery behind their yard," writes Monica Hesse, and "a few weeks later... they drove all the way to Starbucks. Sat in the parking lot. Drove home." And yet: Through all this, she managed to pen the runaway bestseller "Seabiscuit." (Strangely, its success took almost as big a toll on her relationship as her illness.) And now she's got a new bound-to-be-a-hit book, the WWII bio "Unbroken."

Laura Hillenbrand releases new book while fighting chronic fatigue syndrome