Imogen in Waiting: A Memoir of Modern Reproduction

When twenty-six-year-old Lindsay Bartels is diagnosed with breast cancer, she also learns she is a carrier of the BRCA1 gene. To not pass on the cancer-causing gene, Lindsay and her husband undergo IVF, only to find themselves with three viable embryos: two healthy males and one female-with BRCA1.

IMOGEN IN WAITING is the story of a mother grappling with an impossible decision-whether or not to bring a daughter just like her into being-while also asking some of life's biggest questions: What makes for a life worth living? How do we live with our decisions? How do we navigate the unknown? Told to her female embryo, Imogen, Lindsay's story is both human and God-like, about both agency and surrender, capacity and limitations-and how life is always happening in the middle of it all.

Author: Lindsay Bartels
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Third Rail Press
Published: 06/16/2026
Pages: 268
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.61d
ISBN: 9798991212380