The release date for the English version of 'Autobiography of a Face' by
Lucy Grealy is Mar 2003. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
I was treated for cancer for five years of my life, but ever since then, I've been treated for nothing more than the fact that I'm different from other people. The major tragedy of my life, as I always saw it, was the sorrow that came with feeling unattractive. In contrast, the notion that I was cancerous seemed insignificant.
Lucy Grealy was given a possibly fatal cancer diagnosis when she was nine years old. Upon her return to school after having a portion of her jaw amputated, she was subjected to harsh jokes from her peers. Grealy recounts her experience of immense hardship and extraordinary courage in this startlingly honest book, conveying it with humor and without resorting to sentimentality. Grealy portrays with remarkable insight what it's like to be a child or young adult torn between two opposing impulses: the feeling that we want to be loved for who we are above all else, while secretly and desperately wanting to be perfect. Grealy vividly portrays the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasures of wanting to be special.