In this deftly comedic and deeply contemplative memoir, the New York Times bestselling author faces life’s biggest curveball only to find resilience in the most unlikely places.
After Annabelle Gurwitch received an out-of-the blue diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer, an existential dread set in. Precision medicine offered a temporary reprieve–but instead of turning into a cancer warrior, Annabelle declared herself a cancer slacker. Her motto: no runs, no ribbons, no religion.
Told with her signature wit, warmth, and gimlet eye, Gurwitch draws inspiration from Greek mythology and TV comedies, Kermit the Frog and Samuel Beckett. She accidentally acquires an angel, embraces being in it “just for the sex,” and finds herself on a European van tour selling merch for a heavy metal band.
In this hilariously and deeply affecting meditation on mortality, the actress and activist illuminates life with chronic disease, inequities in care, and celebrates tiny victories, the crusty ends of baguettes, the discreet pleasure of sucking at a hobby, and the unshakable bond of female friendship. She upends the notion of living each day as if it were your last, as she discovers you can carpe too much diem, embracing, instead, the extraordinariness of the ordinary.
Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and New York Times bestselling author of six books and a two-time Thurber Prize finalist. Her essays and satire have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post amongst other publications. Her books include the New York Times bestseller I See You Made an Effort and You’re Leaving When? a New York Times “Favorite Book for Healthy Living.” Annabelle co-hosted the fan favorite Dinner & a Movie on TBS and was a regular commentator on NPR. She is a Jewish mother, lung cancer survivor and patient advocate, a terrible ukulele player, and an unrepentant cat lady who lives in Los Angeles.
This event is co-sponsored by Moment Magazine and Annabelle will be in conversation with Moment Opinion and Books Editor Amy E. Schwartz.
Amy E. Schwartz is the opinion and book editor of Moment Magazine, as well as editor of the magazine’s popular “Ask the Rabbis” section. She is editor of the 2020 book Can Robots Be Jewish? And Other Pressing Questions of Modern Life. Before joining Moment in 2011, she spent 17 years as an editorial writer and weekly op ed columnist at The Washington Post, specializing in education, science and the culture wars. Schwartz received a bachelor’s degree in literature from Harvard University in 1984 and studied in Germany from 1990-91 as a Chancellor’s Scholar of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She has lived in and reported from France, Germany and Turkey and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 1988. She has also worked at Harper’s, The New Republic and The Wilson Quarterly. In 2024, she won three first-place Rockower Awards from the American Jewish Press Association. Schwartz is president of the non-denominational Jewish Study Center, an independent adult education institution in Washington, DC.