Asymmetries: A Memoir of Difference

An unflinching memoir of losing a leg to childhood cancer—and the lifelong work of reclaiming body, identity, and belonging beyond “normal.”

At fourteen, Caren Rabbino loses her leg to childhood cancer. The surgery saves her life—but it also fractures her relationship to her body, her family, and the world that suddenly reads as “other.”

In the years that follow, she navigates phantom limb pain and relentless pressure to “fix” herself, even as she tries to pass as normal to protect status, ...