Cheating Destiny

Distinguished journalist and best-selling author James S. Hirsch offers an engaging blend of history, reportage, advocacy, and memoir that speaks for, and to, the more than twenty million Americans who live with diabetes. Hirsch is intimately familiar with the disease: he has lived with type 1 diabetes for three decades. His brother, Irl, also a diabetic, is one of the country's leading diabetologists. Most poignantly, his young son, Garrett, was diagnosed with it at age three. Hirsch draws on all this expertise to craft an incisive, surprising portrayal of the science behind the disorder and its skyrocketing impact on our economy and society. Cheating Destiny offers revealing views of life with diabetes: the urge toward secrecy that many diabetics feel, the glycemic roller coaster they ride, the everyday psychological and emotional hurdles, and the perseverance-even heroism-required for survival. Anyone who lives with diabetes-or loves a diabetic-will find here an empowering voice.

James S. Hirsch, a former reporter for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, is the author of Cheating Destiny, the bestseller Hurricane: The Miracle Journey of Rubin Carter, Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy, and Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam. He is also a principal of Close Concerns, a consultancy and publishing company that specializes in diabetes. He lives in the Boston area with his wife, Sheryl, and their children, Amanda and Garrett.