On June 8, 2010, while on a book tour, the author was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. Over the next eighteen months, until his death in Houston, Texas on December 15, 2011, he wrote constantly and brilliantly on politics and culture. Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, he adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In a riveting account of his affliction, he describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, he embraces the full panoply of human emotions.

"Courageous, insightful and candid thoughts on malady and mortality from one of our most celebrated writers"--Provided by the publisher.