ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on three outstanding examples of the genre: Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air, Jenny Diski's In Gratitude, and Nina Riggs's The Bright Hour. A narrative frame provides the necessary context to assume uncertainty and ambiguity in prognosis, thus making coherence possible in the author's everyday life. In the twenty-first century, the people find a growing body of autothanatographies that explore the social and cultural ramifications of terminal cancer, approaching that illness in an encompassing way that goes beyond its biomedical understanding. The author revisits his life, his personal and professional trajectories, with a thread that provides cohesion to his story: the role of death in his most vital choices. Patients arriving at “cancerland” seem to have a similar experience, as they have to explore and conquer this “suspicious country” against all odds.
