Shattered

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.<>

About the author

Hanif Kureishi grew up in Kent and studied philosophy at King’s College London. His novels include The Buddha of Suburbia, which won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel, The Black Album, Intimacy and The Last Word. His screenplays include My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and Le Week-End. He has also published several collections of short stories. He has been awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and been translated into thirty-six languages.

Report

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

Product details

• Authors: Hanif Kureishi, Kureishi Hanif
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2024
• EAN: 9780241667958
• ISBN: 978-0-241-66795-8
• No. of pages: 192
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 222 mm x 25 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies; Prose: non-fiction, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, Rome, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / People with Disabilities, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Coping with illness & specific conditions, Literary essays, Biography and non-fiction prose, Autobiography: writers, HEALTH & FITNESS / Mental Health, c 2020 to c 2029, Relating to British South Asian people, HEALTH & FITNESS / Diseases & Conditions / General