In
2008, Tom Lubbock was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour and told he had only
two years to live. Physically fit and healthy, and suffering from few symptoms,
he faced his death with the same directness and courage that had marked the
rest of his life. As the Independent's chief art critic, Lubbock was renowned
for the clarity and unconventionality of his writing, and his characteristic
fierce intelligence permeates this extraordinary chronicle. With unflinching
honesty and curiosity, he repeatedly turns over the fact of his mortality, as
he wrestles with the paradoxical question of how to live, knowing we're going
to die.
Defying the initial diagnosis, Tom survived for three years. He savoured his remaining days; engaging with books, art, friends, his wife and their young son, while trying to stay focused on the fact of his impending death. There are medical details in the book - he vividly describes the slow process of losing control over speech as the tumour gradually pressed down on the area of his brain responsible for language - but this is much more than a book about illness; rather, it's a book about a man who remains in thrall to life, as he inches closer to death.
Defying the initial diagnosis, Tom survived for three years. He savoured his remaining days; engaging with books, art, friends, his wife and their young son, while trying to stay focused on the fact of his impending death. There are medical details in the book - he vividly describes the slow process of losing control over speech as the tumour gradually pressed down on the area of his brain responsible for language - but this is much more than a book about illness; rather, it's a book about a man who remains in thrall to life, as he inches closer to death.
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