In-Between Days
A Memoir About Living with Cancer
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4.7 • 18 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
2016 Governor General's Literary Award Finalist
2017 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Winner
2017 Joe Shuster Award Nominee
Teva Harrison was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at the age of 37. In this brilliant and inspiring graphic memoir, she documents through comic illustration and short personal essays what it means to live with the disease. She confronts with heartbreaking honesty the crises of identity that cancer brings: a lifelong vegetarian, Teva agrees to use experimental drugs that have been tested on animals. She struggles to reconcile her long-term goals with an uncertain future, balancing the innate sadness of cancer with everyday acts of hope and wonder. She also examines those quiet moments of helplessness and loving with her husband, her family, and her friends, while they all adjust to the new normal.
Ultimately, In-Between Days is redemptive and uplifting, reminding each one of us of how beautiful life is, and what a gift.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
An iBooks Best of 2016 pick. When we think of battling disease, we imagine the medical aspects: tests, treatments, hospital visits. But as Teva Harrison masterfully reminds us, the more personal experiences of a terminal diagnosis—days spent weary and disoriented, awkward comments from obtuse well-wishers—can be equally harrowing. Since learning about her own metastatic breast cancer in 2013, the Toronto artist and writer has been preserving the mundane and magical details of her life in free-form line drawings and candid reflections. These make up In-Between Days, a brave and beautiful account of life with a serious illness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This unforgettable memoir takes readers on a grueling and very personal journey into cancer treatment. Harrison's prose and distinct illustrations recount her journey from being a healthy woman with a promising future into the world of palliative care after she was diagnosed with incurable cancer at age 37. She shares her disappointments, medical appointments, best and worst days, and interactions with those around her, recounting what it feels like to go for an MRI at 3:45 a.m. With brutally honest writing, she describes the challenge of balancing pain management with being fully immersed in her life, and the problem with hope: "I have to find a way to balance the hope I need to get up every day with the pragmatism I need to deal with bad news." Going far beyond her cancer patient status, her reflections poignantly take readers into her life: introducing them to her family, venturing back in time to when she fell in love with her now-husband, and reminiscing about some of the powerful women and men whom she has loved and lost. Harrison's short, sharp essays are raw, brilliant, thought-provoking, and very disquieting.
Customer Reviews
Strangely lovely
As a health care provider it was eye opening to me to be able to read this account. It gave me a little insight into what some of my patients dealing with a cancer diagnosis might be going through. Beyond the practical, this book was a stirring mix of sadness and beauty as life can often be and I enjoyed it very much.