Letters from the Land of Cancer »

Walter Wangerin Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most gifted writers writing today on the issues of faith and spirituality. Starting with the renowned Book of the Dun Cow, Wangerin's writing career has encompassed most every genre: fiction, essay, short story, children's story, meditation, and biblical exposition. His writing voice is immediately recognizable, and his fans number in the millions. The author of over forty books, Wangerin has won the National Book Award, New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year Award, and several Gold Medallions, including best-fiction awards for both The Book of God and Paul: A Novel. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he is Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University. Walter Wangerin Jr. es reconocido como uno del mejor escritor sobre las aplicaciones la fe y la espiritualidad. Su libros incluyen The Book of God [El libro de Dios], Reliving the Pasion [Recuerdo de la Pasion], Peter's First Easter [El Primer Domigo de Resureccionde Pedro], Mourning into Dancing [Como Cambiar el Lamento en Baile], The Manger is Empty [El Pesebre Vacio] y Little Lamb, Who Made Thee? [ Quien te hizo, Corderito?]. Wangerin vive en Valparaiso, Indiana, ocupa la catedra Jochum en la Universidad de Valparaiso, donde es escritor residente.

In this unabridged audio download, Letters from the land of Cancer, award-winning writer Walter Wangerin Jr. offers his profound insights into the greatest challenge we face: confronting our own mortality. Diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in January 2006, Wangerin began writing letters to his friends and family members. Now he offers these intimate letters to all who ask questions about living and dying well.

Publishers Weekly

The prospect of hanging concentrates the mind wonderfully, wrote essayist Samuel Johnson. In the case of prolific writer and teacher Wangerin (Saint Julian), a diagnosis of lung cancer drove him not to despair but to writing, his usual mode of making sense of things. He tells his family it’s an adventure; cancer is his wrestling with God and the big questions, as mortality gets right up in his face. A series of 22 letters—addressed mostly to friends to convey news of his progress—and seven meditations recapitulate the long, pain-filled journey through chemotherapy and radiation treatment so strong it eventually, literally, takes his breath away, diminishing tumors and lung capacity. Wangerin’s detailing is concrete, from the joy of touching his grandchild’s finger to the who-knew? myriad changes wrought by mortal illness. Faith may be his armor, but he is no noble knight, revealing peevishness, arrogance, self-absorption. No one speaks from the other side, but Wangerin, his cancer now sleeping, has gone before us with fierce honesty, peering over the edge and reporting. (Feb.)

Contents

Prologue....................9
Letter #1....................25
Letter #2....................31
Letter #3....................34
A First Meditation: "Remember, Mortal!"....................40
Letter #4....................48
A Second Meditation: Rinsed with Gold, Endless, Walking the Fields....................53
Letter #5....................57
A Third Meditation: Noah Insists on Questioning Things....................64
Letter #6....................68
Letter #7....................72
Letter #8....................79
Letter #9....................87
Letter #10....................94
Letter #11....................101
Letter #12....................111
Letter #13....................118
Letter #14....................126
Letter #15....................128
Letter #16....................135
Letter #17....................141
A Fourth Meditation: Can Give Her the Gettin'....................145
Letter #18....................156
Letter #19....................166
A Fifth Meditation: If I Thought Anything, I Thought, "Cheek"....................176
Letter #20....................180
Letter #21....................186
A Sixth Meditation: I Will Never Plant a Seed in You....................192
Letter #22....................194
A Seventh Meditation: Bright as Crystal....................198
Postscript....................199