An adult consideration of cancer, and sickness in general, is Lipsyte's 1998 nonfiction work, "In the Country of Illness". Here, he speaks of infirmity as if it is a foreign land, a place he calls “Malady . . . another country, scary and strange.” Basing his accounts on his own experiences, as well as those of other family members, he comforts, advises, warns, and informs the reader with tenderness, insight, and wit. Lipsyte's second wife, Margie, learned that she had breast cancer after their divorce.