While the structure of this was quite flighty on audio, the truth is the two narrators are just so fantastic, I quickly resolved to re-read the book on the page in the future, for now going along for the excellent ride. Otherwise, the preoccupation with pinning it down would have, I know, interrupted my concentration.

And what a ride it is. The voice in this is exquisite, and I think humanizes death in a way that really worked for me. The cancer as character managed to characterize the person diagnosed even further, imbuing certain qualities not always on display, but clearly present. I found it emotionally present and consistently excellent at interrogating a pretty difficult theme. Every range of emotion in found and annunciated with the interplay between plot beats and character interactions, contrasted with the voice and story of the cancer.

I think the ending of this particularly worked for me as well. Which is a hard thing to really nail, for something as existential as it becomes. But it was poignant, meaningful, and supplied a the rare, earned end. I knew 2 chapters in it would probably be a 5 star read, and that I’d want to re read it again on paper whenever it becomes affordable. In Canada it’s $27 CAD for the paperback, which just isn’t tenable for my budget, but there’s a March 2023 edition dropping that’s $13 via Blackwells, so my eye is on that.