Life in Asymmetry

As a young girl, Raychel Kubby Adler dreamed of having boobies. Wearing a polka-dot bikini top stuffed with Kleenex, she would stare in the mirror envisioning two beautiful coconuts.

But in the next 36 years, her outlook shifts, and when she looks in the mirror, all she sees sitting on her chest are ticking time bombs.
Life in Asymmetry tells the story of what happened in between. From the “flatlands” of puberty, across the “boobie mountains” of parenthood, and traversing the “landmines” of genetic breast cancer, Adler illuminates what it means to live with genetic cancer and to be a “previvor.” In this dazzling memoir, Adler looks at the interplay of genetics, personal choice and chance that shapes each of our lives and asks us to explore the course of actions we might take when offered a unique glimpse into our possible futures.
By telling her story, Adler brightens the horizon for future generations of previvors, including her two daughters—so that they may know the unmarred beauty of life’s asymmetry.
Let them imagine coconuts.