'A triumphant story of hope and survival
'I am dying. I know that I'm dying, despite not having been told by my doctors that I am dying. I know I am dying because I'm in the dying room.
'Carly-Jay Metcalfe was born with cystic fibrosis, survived a double-lung transplant at the age of twenty-one and faced a rare cancer at the age of thirty. What she has endured should have killed her, but her humour, courage and optimism became her best survival skills.
'From her hospitalised childhood to her many friendships, loves and losses, Carly-Jay shares the fickle nature of life with candour and warmth. She writes with compelling insight about organ donation, opioid addiction and survivor's guilt, while still managing to find joy amongst the wreckage.
'Breath is a stunningly frank and darkly funny memoir about living, dying and trying to breathe.' (Publication summary)
'Breathing was one of the few things in life I took for granted. Until I was 20, out with pneumonia for four months, three fractured ribs from excessive coughing. Then again at 32, post-COVID coughing for three months, two fractured ribs that time. Sickness and disability have a way of reframing things we otherwise consider inevitabilities: breathing; life.' (Introduction)
'The most surprising – and refreshing – thing about Carly-Jay Metcalfe’s memoir is how raunchy and raucous it is, especially for a book about lifelong illness. In Breath, Metcalfe discusses her cystic fibrosis and the complexities of survival.' (Introduction)
'The most surprising – and refreshing – thing about Carly-Jay Metcalfe’s memoir is how raunchy and raucous it is, especially for a book about lifelong illness. In Breath, Metcalfe discusses her cystic fibrosis and the complexities of survival.' (Introduction)
'Breathing was one of the few things in life I took for granted. Until I was 20, out with pneumonia for four months, three fractured ribs from excessive coughing. Then again at 32, post-COVID coughing for three months, two fractured ribs that time. Sickness and disability have a way of reframing things we otherwise consider inevitabilities: breathing; life.' (Introduction)
