Letters from the Land of Cancer - Hardcover

Wangerin Jr., Walter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0310292816 ISBN 13: 9780310292814

Publisher: Zondervan, 2010

Synopsis

In Letters from the Land of Cancer, award-winning writer Walter Wangerin Jr. offers his profound insights into the greatest challenge we face: confronting our own mortality. “Shortly after the cancer had been diagnosed I began writing letters to the members of my immediate family, to relatives and to lifelong friends. The following book will consist mostly of those letters. They will invite you into my most intimate dancing with the cancer, even as that partner and I have over the last two years swung each other around the tiled floors of ballrooms and bathrooms. Dizzy still, and day by day, I sat and wrote: This is what I’m feeling right now. This is what I think....” From afternoon to afternoon of radiation, Wangerin wrote about confronting his mortality, about living with the messiness of undone tasks and bodily weakness. He wrote about the medical procedures he endured, the wild mood swings that unbalanced his days, and the fragilities and strengths of the relationships that surrounded him. Letters from the Land of Cancer is made up of these writings. Cadenced within the letters are Wangerin’s eloquent meditations derived from his pastoral experiences with the faithful passage of death to life. Seldom has the great adventure of life and death been as beautifully presented as it is in this testimony to faith, love, and the shocking reality of hope.

About this title

From the Back Cover

On December 26, 2005, Walter Wangerin Jr. felt a lump in his neck. Doctors confirmed his fears: Wangerin had lung cancer.

But a writer is always a writer. And so from one afternoon to another, often crouched in the radiologist's chair, Wangerin wrote letters. He wrote about confronting his mortality, about living with the messiness of undone tasks and bodily weakness. He wrote about the medical procedures he endured, the wild mood swings that unbalanced his days, and the fragilities and strengths of the relationships that surrounded him. He sent each letter to an intimate community of friends and family, inviting them into the intense days of treatment and the shocking reality of eternal hope.

Letters from the Land of Cancer is made up of these writings. Interspersed within the letters are Wangerin's eloquent meditations derived from his pastoral experiences with the faithful passage of death to life. As Wangerin writes, “Here is the story which must ultimately embrace every living body, every physical person. Here, too, is the story in which our faith in Christ most can shine.” Seldom has the great adventure of life and death been so beautifully and creatively presented.

About the Author

Walter Wangerin Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most gifted writers writing today on the issues of faith and spirituality. Known for his bestselling Book of the Dun Cow, Wangerin’s writing voice is immediately recognizable, and his fans number in the millions. The author of over forty books including The Book of God, Wangerin has won the National Book Award and the New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year Award. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he is Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Zondervan
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0310292816
• ISBN 13: 9780310292814
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208