Carole Manning’s acclaimed memoir My Woman Heart is the moving and inspirational true story of a wife, mother and sister who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has a rare and untreatable lymphoma attached to her heart.

Manning was a celebrated journalist at the Washington Post prior to her diagnosis. She left her work and traveled across Asia, rediscovering her connections with her far-flung siblings and estranged children, and uncovering surprising truths about her own life and relationships. My Woman Heart is Manning’s truthful account of reclaiming a full life with humor, courage, and love, but also accepting death with grace and dignity. It’s a celebration of a woman’s life as well as a powerful look into the very face of death.

In July 2012, Carole Manning learned she had amyotrophic lymphoma—an irreversible condition that systematically destroys the nerves that power the heart. She was fifty-eight years old, with a devoted husband and two grown children, and she had only one year of health remaining.

Carole decided to spend that year on a quest for the truth of her life and her relationships.

However, My Woman Heart is not angry or bitter: it acknowledges hard truths, but it is also full of Carole’s optimism, joie de vivre, and sense of humor. It is a book about life, not death.

In a story that circumnavigates the world, Carole takes us from her diagnosis in an office near Dupont Circle in Washington D.C., to the teeming streets of Taipei Taiwan, where she re-connects with her daughter, to the lush jungle of Hawaii where she rediscovers the pleasures of sister-hood. Carole takes us through the hard realities of sharing a last Christmas with friends and family, and the pleasures of skiing – for the very first time, and the last – and finally to the Armenian holocaust memorial where Carole confronts her lost heritage, and her family’s legacy. My Woman Heart is not only Carole Manning’s unforgettable gift to her loved ones, but an offering to all of us, to seize the day, and know joy in every moment.