Dead Mom Walking: A Memoir of Miracle Cures and Other Disasters - Paperback

by Rachel Matlow (Author)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED for the 2021 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

"A comedy for catastrophic times." --CBC

"A hilarious memoir of effervescent misadventures." --Toronto Star

"How am I laughing at someone's mother's cancer? How? We think we can't laugh about death, about cancer, about our mothers and their suffering . . . and we can't, but we can. And there's so much relief in that." --Carolyn Taylor, BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW

A whip-smart and darkly funny memoir about an unconventional family, the limits of wellness fads, and the mother of all catastrophes.

Rachel Matlow's eccentric mom, Elaine, never quite followed the script handed down to her. Her bold out-there-ness made it okay for Rachel to be their genderqueer self and live life on their own terms. But when Elaine decides to try to heal her cancer naturally, Rachel has to draw the line.

What ensues is a tug of war between logical and magical thinking, an odyssey through New Age remedies ranging from herbal tinctures and juice cleanses to a countryside ayahuasca trip, and a portrait of a mother and child who've never been physically closer or ideologically further apart.

In facing their inimitable mother's death, Rachel has written a book bursting with life--the epic adventures and epic fails, the broken limbs and belly laughs. As hilarious as it is poignant, Dead Mom Walking is about writing the story of your life only to find out that life has other plans.

Author Biography

RACHEL MATLOW (they/them) was a long-time producer on the arts and culture program Q on CBC Radio, where they also worked on Spark and The Sunday Edition. Their audio documentary Dead Mom Talking won a 2016 Third Coast award and a 2017 Gabriel award. They have written for The Globe and Mail, National Post, and The Believer. They play chess every weekend and are forever planning their next long-distance hike.