Book Launch | A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles: A True Story of Love, Science, and Cancer by Mary Elizabeth Williams

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• Science & Health

Acclaimed Salon journalist Mary Elizabeth Williams’ New York Times “Modern Love” column, “A Second Embrace, With Hearts and Eyes Open,” was a stirring account of her reunion with her estranged husband, which happened just before she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in her early forties. It struck a nerve and was a viral sensation as one of the most-shared essays of 2014.

Now, in her wry, witty, and unflinching memoir: A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles: A True Story of Love, Science, and Cancer, Mary Elizabeth Williams expands on her personal journey with stage 4 melanoma facing almost certain death, and how, remarkably—and thanks to cutting-edge science—she was restored to health with no signs of disease.

In the book, Williams shares how she became part of one of the biggest breakthroughs in cancer treatment in decades as a bona fide guinea pig for immunotherapy, a new drug protocol that, instead of relying on the holy trinity of conventional treatment: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy (known as “slash, burn, and poison”), harnesses the power contained within our own bodies to conquer cancer. This is a human account from the front lines of the disease that seamlessly weaves in the voices of experts in the field and innovative research that is changing the face of medicine.