Surviving Cells

A gripping, emotionally intelligent cancer novel exploring medical ethics, data corruption, and mother–daughter relationships.

Present-day Minneapolis. Dr Ana Jovanovic, oncologist, goes against the advice of her hospital''s tumour board and schedules her patient Jonathan for exploratory surgery. She is proved right when the surgery reveals that he has cancer. But when Jonathan is unable to face his diagnosis and takes his own life, Ana is sent into a tailspin. She takes an unplanned sabbatical, hoping to rediscover herself outside her dual, devouring roles of doctor and mother to fifteen-year-old Maggie. A new relationship with Duri, a young medical intern who needs Ana''s help to expose data falsification at his cancer research lab, promises both an exciting love affair and redemption for failing Jonathan. But mere months later, Ana discovers that the aches and fatigue she has been feeling are due to late-stage breast cancer. Now sharply aware of her own mortality, she is confronted for the first time by how it feels to be the patient; faced with making impossible decisions about quality of life and quality of death.