Just over a year ago, our friend Suvarnaprabha passed away in the company of her friends from the San Francisco Buddhist Center. Some readers may recall our coverage of Suvarnaprabha's last few months in which she generously shared much of her process of dying as a way to encourage people to meet their own mortality in the light of the Dharma.

Suvarnaprabha kept a great blog to document the ups and downs of her process and asked us to publish a digital book version of it for free. Thanks to the amazing editorial work of Vidyadevi and the design skills of Dhammarati, an initial print volume was produced from which the various new editions have been made.

The book is called 'Crap, I've Got Cancer: The sad, somewhat funny, definitely not depressing cancer memoir'

And here is the blurb for the book, which is available now:

'An extraordinary, brave account of facing cancer - funny, moving, deeply inspiring. This book is for anyone who may have experience of the disease or who’s ever contemplated their own mortality. Suvanna is the perfect guide as she takes us through the stages of her own illness with unflinching courage, considerable humor, and more than a touch of panache.

Based on her original blog this book also brings together Suvanna’s writings on a variety of subjects related to her reflections on cancer. It also serves as a uniquely entertaining diarized account of life in San Francisco and the Bay Area, and is a useful introduction to many of the features of contemporary cancer care. Included in this new digital edition are some recordings of Suvanna speaking about her experience from the last months of her life.

From the introduction: “Suvarnaprabha [Suvanna’s Buddhist name] never shied away from writing about her approaching encounter with the grim reaper, to use one of the politer and more conventional ways she referred to that mysterious process, but whatever was going on and however she felt about it, through all the medical appointments and appearances of Nurse Jackie, the journeys and movie recommendations, her delight in good friends, the moments of sadness, stoicism, drama and farce, the underlying theme of this story, as I’m sure you’ll agree, is not really ‘cancer’, or ‘death’ at all, but love.”'

Read on iBooks (US) | Read on iBooks (UK) | Read on Issuu | Read on Scribd

A set of direct download files of 'Crap, I've Got Cancer' (for all platforms).

If you'd like to order a print copy of the original book design, we've a version available here on Lulu, priced as low as possible (cost price). You can also order direct from the Amazon Kindle store but they charge for this; download direct for free from the link above.