Sophie Kinsella •
What Does It Feel Like? •

Sophie Kinsella, author of the popular Shopaholic series, takes a completely different direction in What Does It Feel Like? The heroine, Eve, suddenly finds her life upended by aggressive brain cancer. An eight-hour surgery to remove the tumor leaves her exhausted, unable to move her head, with no memory of what has occurred. The novella follows her recovery, inch by painful inch—including the day when she learns the average survival time for her disease: 14 months.

What makes this book exceptional is that Eve’s story is Kinsella’s own. Although she has altered details for the sake of narrative, she lived all of Eve’s journey. Relearning to walk and to write her name. Crippled by headaches and constant nausea. Forgetting the words to familiar Christmas carols. Cycling through denial, despair, shock, grief, rage, fear, angst, guilt.

Kinsella doesn’t pull punches, but she finds humor even in the midst of her ordeal. Eve’s nine-year-old son argues that she can’t be sick when all she ever eats is bean salad. In spite of the falls, bruises, memory loss, and inability to do so much as make a cup of tea, Eve continues to insist she really doesn’t need a caregiver.

Her strategy for getting through medical procedures is to imagine she’s at a spa. “When you are asked to change into a gown, pretend it is a fluffy robe.” The machinery to scan her brain is state-of-the-art equipment for facials. The nurses spouting technical jargon are spa attendants discussing her skin type.

At the top of Eve’s bucket list is not skydiving or a trip to Machu Picchu, but really good marmalade. “Are you Paddington Bear?” laughs her husband.

Facing the abyss, Kinsella proves herself brave, funny, stubborn, and resilient. We join her many fans in wishing her the happiest possible ending.