The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir

March 10, 2021

kingdoms

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad
Published by Random House
Publication date: February 9, 2021
Genres: Book Clubs, Debut, Memoir, Non-fiction
four-stars
Bookshop

Imagine being 22 years old, leaving home to live in Paris and work at a dream job, and meeting a great guy. Sounds like the beginning of a traditional chick-lit novel, right? But what if, despite all the excitement, physical problems you’d written off to stress weren’t getting better, they were getting worse? In this way, Suleika’s Jaouad’s memoir, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, reads more like a horror novel. When doctors in France can’t figure out what’s wrong she returns to the United States and is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, usually found in the elderly. Suddenly, her plans aren’t just on hold, her life is in question.

In short order, Suleika’s life is moving in reverse. She’s hospitalized for three weeks of chemotherapy, but her body doesn’t respond. What follows are onerous swathes of time, with more chemo, a clinical trial, countless emergency room visits, a highly dangerous bone marrow transplant, and an existence so painful that the only thing making it bearable are fentanyl patches. It isn’t until almost four years later that she is cured and once more finds herself at the starting line of adulthood, while everyone she knows has taken off ahead of her.

Suleika’s journey is rife with the kind of anecdotes that make people blessed with good health shudder. The friend who recommends a healer who promises he can cure her cancer, but turns out to be a veterinarian whose license has been suspended for practicing on humans. The interminable, painful tests. The side effects of aggressive chemotherapy—coughing up the lining of your esophagus. Or the prognosis that only 1 in 4 patients with this form of leukemia survive five years.

Between Two Kingdoms is not simply a detailed medical diary. The second half of the memoir is about the aftermath of being ‘cured’—a painful process in and of itself. Suleika has to step from the land of fighting off death into the land of living. She decides to separate the two kingdoms by taking 100 days to travel across the country and visit the many people she became close to, via letters, phone calls, emails, while she was sick. For her it’s a way to release the biggest experience of her life, reclaim the woman she was and discover who she wants to be.

She recognizes how the disease impacted the lives of those around her. In particular, her boyfriend, Will, who even though he’d only known her a few months, left Paris and stayed by her side throughout the years of treatments. Suleika’s gift as a writer infuses Between Two Kingdoms with honesty and self-awareness.  This is a powerful story that covers not just the fight to survive but the world that opens up after the battle is won.

 

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I get a small commission (at no cost to you).

 

*I received a free copy of this book from Random House in exchange for an honest review.*

 

four-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • Same Genre
  • 4 Star Books
best books
Best Books of 2022
undertaker
The Undertaker’s Daughter
top
Top Ten Books I Loved Before I Started Blogging
january
January Reading Wrap-Up
march reading
March Reading Recap
yes chef
Yes, Chef: A Memoir
Down the Up Escalator
Down the Up Escalator
horses
The Year of the Horses: A Memoir
slow motion
Slow Motion: A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy
other einstein
The Other Einstein
wildes
The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts
english
The English Experience
women in black
The Women in Black
The Art Forger
The Art Forger
visiting
Rules for Visiting: A Novel

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: health, memoir

Comments

  1. Laila says

    March 13, 2021 at 8:36 pm

    Wow, she’s a walking miracle! What a story.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      March 17, 2021 at 12:30 pm

      Yes. It read like fiction.

      Reply
  2. susan says

    March 14, 2021 at 6:10 pm

    Christ getting that kind of leukemia would just be horrifying and so strange. I’m glad this Will from Paris stayed by her side — wow — and that she’s ends up all right. I think she was on the NYT book podcast which I still have to listen to. It seems like a powerful book.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      March 17, 2021 at 12:31 pm

      I didn’t get into even half of it. It was brutal. I bet she was on the podcast; I think she’s still a contributor to the paper.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Bookshop. If you click on a link that takes you to their site and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2025

Copyright © 2025 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in