You Don’t Have To Be Your Mother

This is a moving account of Gayle Feldman’s fight against cancer, interwoven with memories of her mother, her mother’s death, her grandmother’s death and her sister-in-law’s death – all of whom died of the same cancer. At 40, after hormone fertility drugs, Feldman becomes pregnant, only to discover at week 35 that she has a malignant lump in her breast. This means inducing the baby and a biopsy 60 hours later. Ben is born safely but starts to turn blue, although he will ultimately recover. Feldman has to undergo mastectomy, but the cancer has gone no further. The book ends with her looking forward in hope.