Author(s): Caroline Clark

Medicine | Essay | CB Editions

‘I just want to know the worst.’

Where does the body end and the mind begin? Two texts run parallel: on one side the verbatim transcript of a cancer diagnosis, and on the other side fragments of the writer's past and present, catching on the future.

‘Caroline Clark summons us, boldly and beautifully, to eavesdrop on a consultation and a life – and in doing this she illuminates the gap, both in understanding and language, between a medical history and the actual stuff of a person.’ 
     – Sam Guglani, consultant oncologist and author of Histories

‘It’s a conversation no-one wants to have: an oncologist explains a new cancer diagnosis, and begins a dialogue over treatment options. From the cool, brisk language of the clinic Caroline Clark has distilled the most extraordinary poetic reflections, creating book of great value for clinicians and patients alike – as well as anyone interested in the language of caring, and how we respond to life-threatening illness.’ 
     – Gavin Francis, author of Recovery

Click here to listen to Caroline Clark talking with Liam Bishop (with background birdsong at around 11' 20" in) in a Rippling Pages podcast about how the book came to be written.

Caroline Clark lives in Lewes, Sussex, and works as a Russian translator and community interpreter. She has published a poetry collection, Saying Yes in Russian (Agenda Editions), and Sovetica (CB editions), a book of poem-stories accompanying photographs taken by her Russian husband in his home town of Zhukovsky in the 1980s.