One in Three: A Son's Journey into the History and Science of Cancer

(Paperback)

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Calming and illuminating . . . A story more gripping than frightening.Janet Maslin, The New York Times

Writer and documentary director Adam Wisharts poignant and timely book on cancer is the first of its kinda seamless blend of memoir and medical history that simultaneously explains science in an elegant, non-intimidating way and connects to the experience of being a patient. When his father was diagnosed with cancer, Wishart couldnt find a book that answered his most basic questions: What was the disease and how did it take hold What is it about cancers biology that makes it hard to eradicate Are we to a cure One in Three is a sons personal and journalistic take on cancers history and the encouraging story of sciences progress in changing the outlook on cancer from a disease we die from to one we live with, providing the full account of the discovery of the disease, its treatment, and its prevention. Wisharts candid discussion of his personal link to cancer is ultimately a story of hope, and one in which we may all find comfort. One in three of us will develop cancer. This book will help us to understand it without fear.

Reviews

"A different type of cancer book. It is calm, factual, beautifully written, intelligent, and moving. . . . This book brings understanding, and most of all it also brings some hope." -- Dr. Des Spence
"A remarkable meld of medical history, scientific fact, and the human experience of cancer. Enthralling." -- Clare Rayner
"A truly remarkable book . . . No other writer has dipped so easily between the personal world of a family coping with illness and the wider public context of the medical battle against that illness. . . . One in Three demystifies the illness and gives the battle against it a proper context. But its lasting achievement is the superb portrait it paints of Wishart's father, a fascinating, courageous and inquisitive man who seems to have passed on these qualities to his son." -- Dermot Bolger
"An amazing book--combining the personal story of one man's cancer journey seen through the eyes of his son with the history of cancer from the Ebers Papyrus of 1600 BC to the molecular therapies of the twenty-first century. It's a mine of extremely well-researched information, written with great clarity and style. It explains the background to treatments--surgery, radiotherapy, and drugs whilst dealing with society's ultimate goal of cancer prevention. Simply the best in its class today. Essential reading for anyone who has cancer or loves someone with the disease." -- Karol Sikora
"An imaginative fusion of anecdotal detail, medical science, and poignant, elegiac narrative marks every chapter of this unusual book. . . . [It] inhabits a remarkable genre of its own." -- John Cornwell
"By interweaving a moving, but unsentimental, account of his father's last illness with a lucid history of cancer and the efforts of medical science to find a cure for it, Wishart has produced a book that is informative, balanced, accessible, and absolutely riveting." -- David Lodge
"Perhaps the most readable and comprehensive account out there of our battle with the big C." -- Michael Bond
"Wishart succeeds brilliantly in constructing a narrative that is a tribute both to his father and to the scientists who have partly unpacked the mystery of cancer." -- Simon Singh