Unlike a diary, In-Between Days does not adhere to any chronological order, but rather a loosely structured collection of thoughts-like unraveling pockets of memories-that shine light on some aspect of Harrison’s life. The memoir, composed of three sections, is divided into thematic topics, such as diagnosis and treatment, marriage and family, and hopes and fears.

Harrison’s series of black-and-white drawings evoke a primitive, sketchbook quality, while the accompanying reflections resemble personal diary entries. “Cancer thrusts you into the centre,” she writes, “while simultaneously pushing you outside.” The opening illustration depicts various angles of her hands as she ponders living on the edges of uncertain spaces-a recurring image that appears again when the side effects of cancer drugs stiffen her hands to “deformed claws.” The motif is powerful in that Harrison-who is a visual artist, writer and cartoonist-loves making things with her hands, but is denied that freedom. By recounting the unresolved hurt of her past, and facing the uncertainty of her future, Harrison-who was diagnosed with advanced metastatic breast cancer in 2013-has found one way to reclaim power from the “bogeyman” that is her illness.Ĭombining comic-book style illustrations and short essays, Harrison brings her readers into the liminal spaces she occupies between wellness and sickness, awareness and fatigue, and life and death. “It’s the unspoken that is most frightening,” writes Teva Harrison in the preface to her deeply personal graphic memoir, In-Between Days. By recounting the unresolved hurt of her past, and facing the uncertainty of her future, Harrison-who was diagnosed with advanced metastatic breast cancer in 2013-has found one way to reclaim power from the “bogeyman” that is her illness.

In-Between Days by Teva Harrison