Second Story Press and Pages UnBound are teaming up to launch Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy—a not-so-typical memoir by Manjusha Pawagi about her experience with cancer—on Sunday, November 12th at 1:00 pm at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. The event will feature award-winning documentary maker Alisa Seigel in conversation with Manjusha and her stem cell match, Jay.
Manjusha Pawagi was a journalist, children's author and lawyer before being appointed a family court judge in 2009. Her children's book The Girl Who Hated Books is an international bestseller, translated into more than a dozen languages and made into an award-winning animated short by the National Film Board of Canada. She lives in Toronto with her husband Simon and children Jack and Anna.
Stubbornly hopeful, Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy is multi-talanted Pawagi's quirky take on what it's like to face your own mortality when, to be honest, you thought you'd live forever. Manjusha's story will be familiar to many Canadians, after her search for a stem cell donor was covered in the media, including two CBC Radio documentaries. The documentary “Manjusha Meets Her Match” will be re-airing this month on The Sunday Edition
Praise for Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy:
Danielle Martin, MD, and best-selling author of Better Now: 6 Big Ideas to Improve Health Care for All Canadians:
“Manjusha Pawagi carries us on her journey through a territory that is unspeakably rough, with all the humor and grace that an traveller can muster. We learn with her what it feels like to be knocked off-course at the prime of life, and to work one's way back.”
Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for Best Laid Plans and No Relation:
“By turns heartbreaking, uplifting, witty and wise, Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy is a profound and inspiring testament to the power of love, beautifully written by a woman of extraordinary gifts, and I don't just mean writerly gifts. We should all aspire to confront life's challenges with the wisdom, grace, humour and, yes, love, that guide Manjusha Pawagi on her journey.”