The Undying A Meditation on Modern Illness
The Undying A Meditation on Modern Illness by Anne Boyer, published by Penguin Books on September 8, 2020, is a profound exploration of illness and health through the lens of personal experience. This 320-page work blends memoir with critical analysis, focusing on Boyer’s diagnosis of aggressive triple-negative breast cancer shortly after her 41st birthday. The book delves into the complexities of mortality and the gendered politics surrounding illness, offering insights into the cancer industry and its societal implications.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of reflections as Boyer draws from a diverse range of sources, including historical texts and contemporary cancer narratives. The Undying examines the ecological costs of cancer under capitalism and engages with the voices of women who have documented their own battles with illness. This edition presents a unique perspective on the intersections of personal memoir and broader social issues, making it a significant contribution to discussions on health, disease, and the human experience.
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WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 2020
WINNER OF THE WINDHAM-CAMPBELL PRIZE FOR NONFICTION 2020
FINALIST FOR THE PEN / JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD 2020
‘Profound and unforgettable’ Sally Rooney
‘A classic . . . I have long thought of Boyer as a genius’ Patricia Lockwood
‘An outraged, beautiful, and brilliant work of embodied critique’ Ben Lerner
‘Some of the most perceptive and beautiful writing about illness and pain that I have ever read’ Hari Kunzru
Blending memoir with critique, an award-winning poet and essayist’s devastating exploration of sickness and health, cancer and the cancer industry, in the modern world
A week after her 41st birthday, Anne Boyer was diagnosed with highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. For a single mother living payslip to payslip, the condition was both a crisis and an initiation into new ideas about mortality and the gendered politics of illness.
In The Undying – at once her harrowing memoir of survival, and a 21st-century Illness as Metaphor – Boyer draws on sources from ancient Roman dream diarists to cancer vloggers to explore the experience of illness. She investigates the quackeries, casualties and ecological costs of cancer under capitalism, and dives into the long line of women writing about their own illnesses and deaths, among them Audre Lorde, Kathy Acker and Susan Sontag.
Genre-bending, devastating and profoundly humane, The Undying is an unmissably insightful meditation on cancer, the cancer industry and the sicknesses and glories of contemporary life.
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