The End of My Life Is Killing Me, Annabelle Gurwitch
The End of My Life Is Killing Me, Annabelle Gurwitch
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The End of My Life Is Killing Me
The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker

Author: Annabelle Gurwitch

Narrator: Andie MacDowell, Annabelle Gurwitch

Unabridged: 8 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/17/2026


Synopsis

A book of small rescues against despair.

In this deftly comedic and deeply contemplative memoir, the New York Times bestselling author faces life’s biggest curveball only to find resilience in the most unlikely places.

After Annabelle Gurwitch received an out-of-the blue diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer, an existential dread set in. Precision medicine offered a temporary reprieve—but instead of turning into a cancer warrior, Annabelle declared herself a cancer slacker. Her motto: no runs, no ribbons, no religion.

Told with her signature wit, warmth, and gimlet eye, Gurwitch draws inspiration from Greek mythology and TV comedies, Kermit the Frog and Samuel Beckett. She accidentally acquires an angel, embraces being in it “just for the sex,” and finds herself on a European van tour selling merch for a heavy metal band.

In this hilariously and deeply affecting meditation on mortality, the actress and activist illuminates life with chronic disease, inequities in care, and celebrates tiny victories, the crusty ends of baguettes, the discreet pleasure of sucking at a hobby, and the unshakable bond of female friendship. She upends the notion of living each day as if it were your last, as she discovers you can carpe too much diem, embracing, instead, the extraordinariness of the ordinary.

About Annabelle Gurwitch

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress and author of You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up, a self-hurt marital memoir cowritten with her husband, Jeff Kahn, and now a theatrical play in its third national tour; and Fired! Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, & Dismissed. Her Fired! documentary premiered as a Showtime comedy special and played at film festivals around the world. Gurwitch gained a loyal comedic following during her numerous years cohosting the cult favorite Dinner & a Movie; her acting credits include Dexter, Boston Legal, Seinfeld, Melvin Goes to Dinner, The Shaggy Dog, and Not Necessarily the News on HBO. Most recently, she starred in Coney Island Christmas, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Donald Margulies’s adaptation of a Grace Paley story, at The Geffen Playhouse. Her other live appearances include the New York Comedy Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Upright Citizens Brigade, and story salons in New York and Los Angeles. She has served as a regular commentator on NPR and a humorist for TheNation.com. Her writing has been published in, among others, More, Marie Claire, Men’s Health, and the Los Angeles Times. Gurwitch, a passionate environmentalist and a reluctant atheist, lives with her husband and son in Los Angeles.


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