A Reading, Q&A, and Book Signing with Brandy Liên Worrall
Department: Asian American Studies
Date and Time: April 15, 2015 | 5:30 PM-7:00 PMEvent Location: The Hillside Lounge at The Hill
Event Details
What Doesn’t Kill Us chronicles Brandy’s journey with an aggressive, rare breast cancer at the
age of 31. The book reflects on the parallels between her experiences with cancer and her
American father’s and Vietnamese mother’s trauma and survival during and after the Vietnam War.
The book crosses borders, from rural, Amish-country Pennsylvania, where Brandy had grown up, to
Vancouver, where she lived with her parents, husband, and two young children while enduring
aggressive chemotherapy, radiation, and a double mastectomy. The book also explores the enduring
legacy of chemical warfare on three generations. That both of her parents had been heavily exposed
to Agent Orange does not escape Brandy, who searches for reasons why she would have cancer
despite not having a family history, as well as having had epilepsy as a child. She also wonders how
this exposure has touched her own children. Brandy tells her story with razor-sharp humour and wit,
leaving readers a lasting impression of the meaning of survival.