Suleika Jaouad is a writer, speaker, and cancer survivor. She received a BA from Princeton and an MFA from Bennington College. Her column on cancer and youth, “Life, Interrupted,” won an Emmy Award and her writing on in-between places has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vogue, and NPR. Suleika’s 2019 Ted Talk was one of the most popular for that year. During Covid 19 pandemic, Suleika created the Isolation Journals, a creative project that engages isolation. Suleika served on President Obama’s Presidential Cancer Panel and the national advisory board of Family Reach and the Bone Marrow and Cancer Foundation. She also lectures in the Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia University. She is married to musician Jon Batiste.

The book begins during Suleika’s senior year at Princeton and ends on her 30th birthday, covering a span that includes Suleika’s symptoms, diagnosis, treatments, and remission from leukemia. The book also provides relevant background information for Suleika’s childhood and family history. Suleika was born in New York City. By the time she was 12, she had attended six schools on three different continents.