In Sickness

A Memoir

By: Barrett Rollins

Narrated by: Barrett Rollins

A medical emergency forces a brilliant Harvard oncologist to reveal that she has been hiding her advanced breast cancer for a decade. Her husband—also an oncologist—must set aside his anger and feelings of betrayal so that he can care for her during her final year of life.

When Jane, a world-famous Harvard oncologist, suddenly collapses at work, the medical team resuscitating her makes a shocking discovery: she has advanced breast cancer that she’s been hiding for years. The results are catastrophic. In Sickness shows how even the most rational people can be nearly destroyed by their irrational fears. Tragic, moving, and wryly funny at times, this is an unflinching portrayal of a complicated marriage and its secrets.

©2022 Barrett Rollins (P)2022 Recorded Books

Fascinating story

This is a truly unique story, heart wrenching and painfully true, about a couple and the terrible challenges they faced because of keeping a deadly secret. Although I will never understand Jane’s thought process, her husband did a fantastic job of trying to reason away her incredulous secrecy with her cancer diagnosis. Worth a read and I will be contemplating this for some time.

Intense and horrifying at times

The author/narrator is superb. The story is deeply clinical but also incredibly intimate. I would love to meet the author at a book signing.

A perfect storm of dysfunction

This is a unique story. It is an interesting anatomy of a marriage that was successful in its depth of love and longevity but ultimately fatally dysfunctional. The narrator is an extremely conflict avoidant enabler, and his wife strikes me as someone with an undiagnosed and unsupported psychiatric disorder (reminded me greatly of someone with autism). Her brilliance hid and rationalized her dysfunction. Ultimately what I felt was sad. These people love each other but ultimately were not able to be what each other most needed.

Loved everything about this!

Such an honest and authentic portrayal of a progressive marriage, neurodiversity, and the way we love who we love in the best way we can.

In Sickness: A Memoir

This was a hard book to read. Most men would have ditched this relationship long before the football-sized tumor was discovered on his wife's chest. The dichotomy between the public persona and the private persona of Jane, the author's wife was staggering. Barrett Rollins is a phenomenally patient man to have put up with such a selfish wife for more than 30 years!