In-Between Days

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. (Mar.)