Know What's Happening in Books

Blood Cancer Has Not Abated the Verbose, Sardonic, and Unpredictable Will Self’s Rage with the Literary World

British novelist Will Self, 63, is battling secondary myelofibrosis, a blood cancer. He is halfway through his 64th year while completing a new work titled "The Quantity Theory of Morality," positioned as a sequel to his 1991 debut. The book imagines a fictional version of Self dying of the same disease, and he has described the odds of a successful stem‑cell transplant as slim. Self’s candid reflections on illness and mortality have sparked speculation that this may be his final publication.