An Emmy Award-winning writer and activist describes the harrowing years she spent in early adulthood fighting leukemia and how she learned to live again while forging connections with other survivors of profound illness and suffering.

The itch -- Métro, boulot, dodo -- Eggshells -- Space traveling and gaining momentum -- Stateside -- Bifurcation -- Fallout -- Damaged goods -- Bubble girl -- Stop-time -- Stuck -- Clinical trial blues -- The hundred-day project -- Tango to transplant -- On opposite ends of a telescope -- Hope Lodge -- Chronology of freedom -- The mutt -- Dreaming in watercolor -- A motley crew -- Hourglass -- The edges of us -- Done -- The in-between place -- Rites of passage -- Reentry -- For those left behind -- The long foray -- Written on the skin -- The value of pain -- Salsa and the survivalists -- "Doing a Brooke" -- Homegoing.