Winter Body, Summer Soul is the story of Jan Kirsch's eight-year battle with ovarian cancer. She takes readers into the nightmare every cancer patient lives with: the loss of dignity; the isolation involved with treatment; the fear of dying. With little sentimentality and a bold frankness, Kirsch digs deep within, resurrecting a kind of holy grit underneath it all, even when her soul is as vulnerable as her body. Her discovery of joys and blessings in the midst of such indescribable pain is an inspiration to all who have lost their footing in the face of illness, or loved someone who has. She marvels at the gifts of a caring family and community. She learns how every cancer patient must take charge of her own illness, must join with loved ones and physicians in the battle to fight back, to rise above it--and to pray for her own life. Those who hear Kirsch's story will lie down with her words as she lays bare her heart and soul, and they will find in it a profound sense of hope.