Breathing For A Living: A Memoir

The Story

Twenty-one-year-old Laura Rothenberg had always tried to live a normal life -- even with lungs that betrayed her and a constant awareness that she might not live to see her next birthday. Like most people born with cystic fibrosis, the chronic disease that affects primarily the lungs, Laura struggled to come to grips with a life that had already been compromised in many ways. Sometimes healthy and able to be at school, other times hospitalized for weeks, Laura found solace in keeping a diary. In her writing, she could be open, honest, and irreverent, like the young person she was. Yet behind this voice is a penetrating maturity about her mortality. The memoir opens with Laura's decision to undergo a lung transplant. From the waiting -- and all it implies -- to the surgery, recovery, and her struggle to lead a new life, Laura writes honestly about life, death, love, and friendship. Through it all, she reveals a will and temperament that is fierce and insightful. Book jacket.