The announcement is moving. On Saturday March 11, writer Siri Hustvedt announced on Instagram that her husband, novelist Paul Auster was suffering from of a cancer. The 76-year-old was diagnosed in December.
“My husband was diagnosed with cancer in December after being ill for several months prior. He is now being treated at Sloan Kettering in New York, and I have lived in a place I called cancerland“, writes his wife. Before adding: “Many people have crossed these borders, either because they are or have been sick themselves, or because they love someone, a parent, a child, a spouse or friend who has or has had cancer”.
Chemotherapy and immunotherapy
The diagnosis of this disease changed his daily life: “Cancer is different for each person who has it. All human bodies are alike and no two are identical. Some people survive it and others die. Everyone knows it, and yet living close to this truth changes everyday reality,” says Siri Hustvedt. On social media, she also shared how she was currently feeling: “Living with someone who has cancer and is bombarded with chemotherapy and immunotherapy is an adventure of closeness and separation. You have to be close enough to feel the annoying treatments almost as if they were your own and far enough away to be of real help. Too much empathy can make a person useless! This tightrope isn’t always easy to walk, of course, but it’s the real labor of love.”
Paul Auster is known for his novels which depict marginal and disoriented characters.