What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella @sophiekinsellawriter @sallysmack @prhaudio @prhaudio.bsky.social #WhatDoesItFeelLike

When this was first released, I got the audiobook right away. But when I learned it was based on her own current experience, something made me pause. It was if I somehow delayed listening to her most autobiographical work of fiction, I could deny reality. Madeleine Sophie Wickham, aka Sophie Kinsella, lost her battle with glioblastoma on December 10, an aggressive form of brain cancer, first diagnosed in 2022. I finally had the courage to pick up this story, somewhat her story, and listen to it in tribute to the woman, the writer whose stories made me laugh out loud.

Eve’s story mirrors Sophie’s in so many ways, as she points out in the afterword. She’s a successful writer whose career origins are similar. She’s married to Nick and the mother of five children who one day woke up in the hospital not knowing how she got there. Eve had to learn to do almost everything again…walking, talking and writing…while facing the inevitable prospect that the malignant tumor that was successfully removed will reoccur. Through it all, Eve resolved to live each day fully. No bucket list, just embrace the wonderful life she already had.

I think it was brave and brilliant for Kinsella to announce her diagnosis to the world in a way that was true to her. It wasn’t the depressing one I’d imagined and on the occasion of her death, it is somehow cathartic to be celebrating her life and how she faced her future. The average life span of someone with this form of cancer is twelve to eighteen months. Even in death, Kinsella beat the odds as it’s been three years. Thank you Madeleine Wickham for the joy you brought through your writing and how you lived your life to the end.

Book Info

• Release Date: October 8, 2024
• Narrator: Sally Phillips
• Audio Length: 1 hour, 57 minutes
• Publisher: Random House Audio

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