I Really Want to Live: My Personal Experience

This book was written by a woman who fought breast cancer for more than a year and managed to defeat the disease. Darya Dontsova shockingly candidly tells how long she searched for good doctors, how she went through several operations, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, how for years she took hormones and coped with the weight change caused by the medication. This is not a doctor’s narrative or a psychologist’s recommendations. It is an extremely frank description of personal experience and simple, but very effective, advice from a woman who has survived breast cancer. Her story about moral and physical sensations, about minutes of despair, and about what gave her strength to fight for her life.

They say every person gets sick alone. Darya Dontsova decided to write this book so that both patients and their relatives would know: they are not alone. Cancer can be defeated—and her motto became the words: “Never give up!”

Darya Dontsova is the most popular and in-demand author in our country, a favorite of millions of readers. In Russia, more than 200 million copies of her books have been sold. Darya Dontsova’s detective novels are written in a special manner: besides the most interesting plot, they always include subtle humor, a sound optimism, and an unconditional belief in the triumph of good over evil. That’s all you need for rest, relaxation, and peace of mind. Read Darya’s books, and your hearts and souls will fill with light, optimism, joy, and confidence in tomorrow. They will infect you with a desire to live, to enjoy every day, and to believe in the best.

— “Dontsova is an incredible hard worker! I don’t know any other writer who works as much. I respect her as a model of writing diligence. Women need psychological support, and they get it from Dontsova. I myself, at one time, read several of Dontsova’s novels. Very different people read her. And very busy business ladies, to switch off their heads for a while, and housewives who have a 15–20 minute break between the act of taking—taking the kids.” — Galina Yuzefovich, literary critic

— “With Dontsova, the detective ingredients are just a backdrop for revealing characters and relationships between people. There is always intrigue, and until the last episode it’s unclear what, how, and why. In this sense, the genre conditions are absolutely met. Darya Dontsova, of course, is one of the best.” — Dmitry Kharatyan

— “I started reading a long time ago and got hooked! And now I’m reading Dontsova’s novels. I rest with them. Dontsova herself is an intelligent woman, she has gentle humor and a not-scary plot, everything is with positivity and hope for a good ending. It’s wonderful.” — Larisa Udovichenko