The course of an opera singer’s life is altered after being diagnosed with a rare cancer in Watt’s memoir.

In the winter of 1997, the author was on a ski holiday with her partner, Evie, when she decided to share a secret with her. Playfully placing Evie’s finger on her gumline, she guided her to a bump at the back of her upper jaw. Thinking little of it, other than to schedule a dentist appointment, the two returned to New York. By day, Watt worked as a magazine assistant art director, but by night shared the stage with the likes of Dame Gwyneth Jones as a Metropolitan Opera extra chorister. After undergoing tests, the author received a fraught call from her oral surgeon telling her that she needed to get to a head and neck surgeon immediately. Watt was later diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma. The memoir details the singer’s protracted treatment and recovery from the “savagely aggressive” cancer that involved months of chemotherapy and surgeries that damaged her facial features during tumor extraction. Her opera career prematurely ended, Watt mourned the loss of the “all-absorbing, bodily immersion of singing.” The author describes a “never-ending” facial reconstruction process, reckoning with society’s standards for physical beauty, and “coming back to life after routing the Big C.” Watt is a sharply descriptive writer who is unafraid to address the horror of her treatment: “he worked as much as possible below or behind my sight line, saving me the trauma of watching incoming sharp instruments and suction hoses and bloody junk.” Unapologetically frank, the author also has a wry, sometimes self-effacing sense of humor that brings levity to a distressing subject. On wearing an eyepatch in public, Watt notes: “Even when I was teased by a pack of teenagers, I preferred hearing them laugh at each other’s best pirate impression to being invisible. Arrrrrr! and Avast me hearties! and Ahoy Matie!” The result is a finely textured and courageous literary memoir that is inspirational and, at times, darkly amusing.

A heart-rending journey recalled with lucidity and poise.