No Cure for Being Human | Kate Bowler

No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear

Accolades & Praise

• New York Times Bestseller: A highly celebrated and deeply moving memoir.
• "Kate Bowler is the only one we can trust to tell us the truth." — Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed

Extended Synopsis

It is hard to give up on the feeling that the life you really want is just out of reach. Everyone wants to believe that they are headed toward good, better, best. But what happens when the life you hoped for is put on hold indefinitely? Kate Bowler believed that life was a series of unlimited choices, until she discovered, at age thirty-five, that her body was wracked with stage IV cancer.

In No Cure for Being Human, she searches for a way forward as she mines the wisdom—and absurdity—of today's "best life now" advice industry, which insists on exhausting positivity and on trying to convince us that we can out-eat, out-learn, and out-perform our humanness. We are, she finds, as fragile as the day we were born.

With dry wit and unflinching honesty, Bowler grapples with her diagnosis, her ambition, and her faith as she tries to come to terms with her limitations in a culture that says anything is possible. She finds that we need one another if we are going to tell the truth: Life is beautiful and terrible, full of hope and despair and everything in between—and there is no cure for being human.

About the Author

Kate Bowler is the New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved). A celebrated writer and professor, she is known for her insightful, humorous, and deeply honest explorations of faith, illness, and the realities of human fragility.

Reader Targeting

• Readers seeking honest, beautifully written memoirs about overcoming adversity and dealing with grief or illness.
• Individuals tired of the toxic positivity often found in modern self-help culture.
• Fans of Glennon Doyle, Cheryl Strayed, and profound explorations of personal faith and limitation.

Bibliographic & Physical Specifications

Frequently Asked Questions

What is No Cure for Being Human about?
The memoir explores Kate Bowler's experiences following a stage IV cancer diagnosis at age 35. She confronts the toxic positivity of the modern self-help industry and searches for a meaningful way forward while accepting human fragility.

Is this book a sequel?
While it is a standalone memoir, it serves as a thematic follow-up to her previous bestselling book, Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved).

What are the main themes of the book?
The book focuses on ambition, faith, grappling with physical limitations, and recognizing that life can be both beautiful and terrible at the same time.

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