From Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia, a memoir about the accident that left him paralysed
'A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.'
On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs. He could no longer walk, write or wash himself. He could do nothing without the help of others, and required constant care in a hospital. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home, to his house in London.
While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, but being unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate to family members the words which formed in his head. The result was an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed - a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage.
As Hanif wrote, early on: 'A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.'
This book takes these hospital dispatches - edited, expanded and meticulously interwoven with new writing - and charts both a shattering and a reassembling: a new life born of pain and loss, but animated by new feelings - of gratitude, humility and love.
'A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.'
On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs. He could no longer walk, write or wash himself. He could do nothing without the help of others, and required constant care in a hospital. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home, to his house in London.
While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, but being unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate to family members the words which formed in his head. The result was an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed - a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage.
As Hanif wrote, early on: 'A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.'
This book takes these hospital dispatches - edited, expanded and meticulously interwoven with new writing - and charts both a shattering and a reassembling: a new life born of pain and loss, but animated by new feelings - of gratitude, humility and love.
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Extraordinary, unique and unputdownable . . . an exceptional volume as original as Jean-Dominique Bauby's stroke classic The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [and] as profound and affected as Salman Rushdie's Knife . . . This fall provoked a rare, and inspiring, defiance . . . Shattered, with its unique authorship, has become a life-saver. For the reader, this compounds the intensity of its witness Robert McCrum Independent
Perlentaucher-Notiz zur NZZ-Rezension
Rezensentin Marion Löhndorf empfiehlt Hanif Kureishis Bericht über seine Querschnittslähmung als Liebeserklärung an das Leben. Der Autor legt laut Rezensentin keinen Elendsbericht vor, sondern erzählt mit grimmigem Humor vom Schock des Ereignisses, das den Autor plötzlich ereilt, aus dem Leben reißt und in die Parallelwelt der Krankenhäuser und Reha-Spitale schleudert. Kureishi erzählt von der Illusion des Normalen und wie sein Körper zu etwas Öffentlichem wird, von alten und neuen Freunden, von der Einsamkeit, vom Schreiben und auch von seinem früheren Leben, seiner Kindheit und Jugend. Vor allem Kureishis Direktheit scheint Löhndorf lesenswert.
© Perlentaucher Medien GmbH
© Perlentaucher Medien GmbH