This qualitative study describes the experiences of five patients with advanced cancer who participated in a guided
reading and discussion about selected literary texts. The intervention consisted of reading a selected story, after which each
patient was interviewed, using the reading guide as a conversation template. The interviews were then thematically analyzed for
their conceptual content using a template analysis.

First experiences with our newly developed reading guide designed to support a structured reading of stories
containing experiences of contingency suggest that it may help patients to express their own experiences of contingency and
to reflect on these experiences.