Living in a World of Pain.

The article focuses on Christopher Hitchens’s posthumously published book *Mortality*, a collection of essays reflecting on his experience with oesophageal cancer. It highlights Hitchens’s vivid use of language to describe symptoms, treatment side effects, and the emotional realities of living with a terminal illness, including his perspective on chemotherapy and emerging therapies like CAR-T. The text also addresses Hitchens’s frustration with the variability in cancer prognoses and the limitations of medical language and practices. The final chapter’s unfinished reflections underscore the abruptness of mortality and the profound loss of a distinctive intellect.