A Kingdom of Tender Colors

A young Hollywood screenwriter faces lymphatic cancer in this witty memoir.

One unremarkable day at the age of thirty-seven, Seth Greenland finds himself in everyone’s nightmare: a routine doctor visit, some swollen glands, a series of tests, a biopsy, and finally a diagnosis of an aggressive form of lymphatic cancer. A screenwriter and satirist with a blooming career in Hollywood, Seth has felt pretty good about his life until now; suddenly, the world has tipped on its axis.

With the support of friends and family, Seth launches into an attempt to save his own life without losing either his sanity or his sense of humor. From chemotherapy treatments, to meditation and more alternative treatments, he battles the disease with wit, honesty, and no small amount of sheer terror. There are no pat answers or inspirational revelations here, just one man confronting hopes and fears recognizable to us all—and triumphing.

Praise for A Kingdom of Tender Colors

“Intelligent, self-aware, and resistant to easy answers, A Kingdom of Tender Colors defies any expectation of being a cancer survival guide. Instead, more radically, it is a book about finding a way of being. It is existential in the way of Camus’s The Stranger, without the murder and with more jokes.” —Tom Teicholz, Los Angeles Review of Books

“[Greenland] provides genial, engaging, humorous company throughout the narrative, showing how one can gain a new appreciation for life at its most mundane as well as miraculous.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Absorbing and funny . . . Readers may come for the screenwriter/novelist’s cancer story, but they’ll stay for his gifts as a raconteur.” —Shelf Awareness

“A Kingdom of Tender Colors brings a charming humor to a subject that is nothing if not dire. . . . Greenland holds nothing back, including his feelings of inadequacy and incredulity.” —Alta Journal