Join Us for the Special Launch of THE END OF MY LIFE IS KILLING ME!

About the book:

In this deftly comedic and deeply contemplative memoir, the New York Times bestselling author faces life’s biggest curveball only to find resilience in the most unlikely places.

After Annabelle Gurwitch received an out-of-the blue diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer, an existential dread set in. Precision medicine offered a temporary reprieve—but instead of turning into a cancer warrior, Annabelle declared herself a cancer slacker. Her motto: no runs, no ribbons, no religion. 

Told with her signature wit, warmth, and gimlet eye, Gurwitch draws inspiration from Greek mythology and TV comedies, Kermit the Frog and Samuel Beckett. She accidentally acquires an angel, embraces being in it “just for the sex,” and finds herself on a European van tour selling merch for a heavy metal band. 

In this hilariously and deeply affecting meditation on mortality, the actress and activist illuminates life with chronic disease, inequities in care, and celebrates tiny victories, the crusty ends of baguettes, the discreet pleasure of sucking at a hobby, and the unshakable bond of female friendship. She upends the notion of living each day as if it were your last, as she discovers you can carpe too much diem, embracing, instead, the extraordinariness of the ordinary.

About the authors:

ANNABELLE GURWITCH is an actress, activist, and New York Times bestselling author of six books and a two-time Thurber Prize finalist. Her essays and satire have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post amongst other publications. Her books include the New York Times bestseller I See You Made an Effort and You're Leaving When? a New York Times “Favorite Book for Healthy Living.” Annabelle co-hosted the fan favorite Dinner & a Movie on TBS and was a regular commentator on NPR. She is a Jewish mother, lung cancer survivor and patient advocate, a terrible ukulele player, and an unrepentant cat lady who lives in Los Angeles.

CINDY CHUPACK, in addition to being a fan of everything Annabelle writes, is an Emmy-winning television writer/producer whose credits include Sex and the City, Modern Family, Everybody Loves Raymond, Better Things, Divorce, I’m Dying Up Here, Fleishman Is in Trouble; and the recently launched new Fox series, Best Medicine. She directed and cowrote the Netflix film OTHERHOOD (starring Angela Bassett, Felicity Huffman, and Patricia Arquette), has told stories for the Moth; written essays featured in the New York Times' Modern Love column; authored two comic memoirs — the NYT bestseller "The Between Boyfriends Book: A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays," and "The Longest Date: Life as a Wife” — and a children's picture book, "We Waited for You: Now We’re a Family,” that had its LA launch at Zibby’s!