Press Release

Cancer, You Picked the Wrong Girl: A True Story by Shormistha Mukherjee

This Breast Cancer Awareness month, a book about finding humour in the darkest of times

Praise for the Book

‘Riveting. Funny-sad. And so real. I have a friend-crush on Shormistha now!’ Anuja Chauhan

‘Cancer picked the wrong girl, but you picked the right book. I laughed through tears and till I teared up.’ Aditi Mittal, stand-up comedian, writer

‘It feels strange to call a cancer memoir, a charming, giggly page-turner but that is what this book is. You are so happy to hang out with Shormistha in the waiting room of doctors and inside chemo wards that when you find yourself crying sometimes as you read, it’s a shock. Wait, we were having such a good time, what happened? But then you are smiling again. This is a book for anyone who asks themselves what they’d do if life changed overnight.’ Nisha Susan, author of The Women Who Forgot to Invent Facebook and Other Stories

About the Book

There’s nothing funny about cancer. But humour can help take away some of its terrible power.

In Cancer, You Picked the Wrong Girl, Shormistha Mukherjee offers a no-holds-barred account of her journey navigating a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Through getting a Brazilian wax and deliberating the pros and cons of breast reconstruction to finding a ‘setting’ in the chemo ward, it’s laughter that helped keep her fears in check.

It isn’t all ‘Cancer Lite’, though. Mukherjee packs some emotional sucker-punches and hard truths in this book, making it a small piece of comfort for anyone touched by cancer.

Shormistha Mukherjee says, “When I was diagnosed with cancer, I kept wondering why people were so awkward around me. Then I realised it’s because they didn’t know what to say. In India, we don’t talk about cancer, we just neatly sidestep it like dog poo on a pavement. Which is why I wanted to write a book about what it feels like. Not just the mastectomy, reconstruction, chemo, hair loss, but also the mental see-saw, the loss of dignity, the constipation, the hot flashes. To write about it, was to face up to it. It was the most life altering thing to happen to me, but it also had its moments of humour and lightness. And I want anyone, who god forbid, has to go through this, or a caregiver, or a friend or even a reader who is too scared to say the word cancer, I want them to find hope in this book, and of course snort out their tea in laughter! ”

Author Bio

Shormistha Mukherjee mixes travel with history, saris with sneakers, feni with Limca. Co-founder of a digital agency, she ran a very popular blog that featured her undercover name agentgreenglass and has previously published a series of short fiction stories on Juggernaut. She’s most grateful to have survived breast cancer and get another chance to make the most of her life.

For further information, please write to sagiri.dixit@harpercollins-india.com
Non-fiction/Memoir | PB

 

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