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In the Body of the World

A Memoir of Cancer and Connection

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In the Body of the World

By: Eve Ensler
Narrated by: Eve Ensler
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From the bestselling author of The Vagina Monologues and one of Newsweek's 150 Women Who Changed the World, a visionary memoir of separation and connection—to the body, the self, and the world

Playwright, author, and activist Eve Ensler has devoted her life to the female body—how to talk about it, how to protect and value it. Yet she spent much of her life disassociated from her own body—a disconnection brought on by her father's sexual abuse and her mother's remoteness. "Because I did not, could not inhabit my body or the Earth," she writes, "I could not feel or know their pain."

But Ensler is shocked out of her distance. While working in the Congo, she is shattered to encounter the horrific rape and violence inflicted on the women there. Soon after, she is diagnosed with uterine cancer, and through months of harrowing treatment, she is forced to become first and foremost a body—pricked, punctured, cut, scanned. It is then that all distance is erased. As she connects her own illness to the devastation of the earth, her life force to the resilience of humanity, she is finally, fully—and gratefully—joined to the body of the world.

Unflinching and inspiring, Ensler's In the Body of the World calls on us all to embody our connection to and responsibility for the world.

Abuse Art & Literature Authors Cancer Philanthropy & Charity Physical Illness & Disease Relationships Sexual Abuse & Harassment Social Sciences Women
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Critic reviews

“Ensler reads with the rhythms and cadence of an angry, passionate poet, intense and fully aware of the devastating iron of that diagnosis…Raw, unrelenting, no-holds-barred listening.” —AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

“Ensler's narration in this audio edition is rich and personal as the text itself.” —Publishers Weekly

“Astonishing” —Mary Oliver

“A masterpiece. Ensler has accomplished the impossible: weaving together huge, bold, world-changing ideas with beautiful writing, amazing metaphors, and original structure. Truly one of the most courageous and original works of our time.” —Naomi Klein

“This book is a ride, a river ride through rapids and depths and shallows, dried-up eddies, whirlpools and torrents, crystal-clear pools and the vast ocean at the end. What a thrill and what a spear through the heart. I am astounded by the honesty and clarity of each word.” —Elizabeth Lesser

“Ensler has written a profound and vulnerable book, full of tenderness and strength. I was amazed by the clarity of her vision and the power of her message about the body and self. This book isn't meant only for patients; it is meant for anyone whose life has intersected with illness--in short, for all of us.” —Siddhartha Mukherjee

“I dare anyone to read In the Body of the World without crying, without crying out, without getting up and rising to this beautiful broken world with awe and gratitude. There is no pity here, only the raw force of courage in the face of fear and violence, and the healing grace of honesty.” —Terry Tempest Williams

“Eve Ensler incarnates the pain of the women in the Congo, victims of rape and torture; and of the Earth, victim of so much desecration. Her heart and body are broken, her anger is like fire, and the passion of her writing rattles your soul. This is true literature and true activism.” —Isabel Allende

“Eve Ensler's memoir is not only wild and raw and incredibly important, it's also that rarest of achievements--a compulsively readable, stunningly rendered work of art that delivers hope and truth, challenge and solace, sometimes simultaneously.” —Isabel Allende

“A riveting story of survival.” —Publishers Weekly

“Fierce, frank, raw and profoundly moving.” —Kirkus Reviews

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This held me captive moved me to tears and left me shaken- yet at the same time held me to all humanity in its raw pain and beauty. This story needs to be heard by everyone!

Breathtaking

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This is a deeply moving and simultaneously encouraging and empowering book that merges the world out there with our internal, physical experience.

Excellent

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I heard a brilliant interview with Eve Ensler on Radio Scotland at the weekend and tho I’d heard of the Vagina Monologues it wasn’t in my nature to venture there, but the radio interview made me seek her out and when I saw this title it sounded inspiring and I wasn’t disappointed. This is a truly wonderful book that makes connections between tropes of human behaviour that I’ve found wise and inspiring. That by imagining the ‘poetry’ of a problem, whether brutal or beautiful, you can also imagine a solution to it. I’ve love to have a go to pal like Eve Ensler,but I guess having her talk in my ear is the next best thing. I’m feeling emboldened now to try the V Monologues!

A moving and beautiful book

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The most important, and uplifting, book I have ever read or heard, magnificent, the best.

So much more than cancer.

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This was a beautiful well written/spoken book. Definitely worth the purchase. She's courageous, generous and a story I shall never forget. Thankyou 💜

Cancer through a world context

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