{"product_id":"shattered-a-memoir-isbn-9780063360501","title":"Shattered: A Memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom acclaimed author and playwright Hanif Kureishi comes an urgent and stunning medical memoir about rebuilding a new life in the wake of devastating physical loss.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn late 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he realized he could no longer walk. He could do nothing without the help of others and required constant care in a hospital. So began a yearlong odyssey through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home to his house in London.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhile confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, but being unable to type or hold a pen, he began to dictate to family members the words that formed in his head—thoughts on his life-altering spinal cord injury, but also parenthood, immigration, sex, psychoanalysis, and, of course, writing. The result was an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed: a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, humor, and verve.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eShattered takes these 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 also animated by new feelings of gratitude, humility, and love.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn these dispatches, Kureishi confronts his new reality with the tools he knows best—observation, wit, and relentless inquiry:\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eUnflinching Honesty: A raw, diary-like account of navigating foreign hospitals, the indignities of physical dependency, and the moments of dark humor that make it bearable.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eDisability and Identity: Kureishi grapples with what it means to be a writer, a father, and a man when the physical self he knew is shattered and must be reassembled.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eLiterary Nonfiction: Experience a master storyteller’s voice—urgent, witty, and profound—as he turns the wreckage of a fall into an extraordinary meditation on loss, gratitude, and love.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eNational Book Critic’s Circle Award Finalist\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\"[Kureishi] is good and bracing company on the page. His book is never boring. He offers frank lessons in resilience, about blowing the sparks that are still visible, about ringing the bells that still can ring.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A candid and frequently affecting account . . . . Mr. Kureishi’s road may never lead to a full physical recovery, but he continues to face his rehabilitation with courage and compassion.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kureishi’s style, his obsessions, his language—they’re all here in this extraordinary work. . . . [\u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e] is informed by a lifetime of writerly skill and observation and thoughtfulness, by private emotion and keen worldliness, all of which must now contend, leaning at a new angle, with a new world and a new life story. We are fortunate that Kureishi has chosen to include us, his readers, in the group of people he knows ‘reasonably well,’ well enough to tell us so much.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An enthralling report on how a person can be forced to reckon with sudden, shocking change . . . \u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e is its own lifeline, and a neat exemplar of what we mean when we describe a book as ‘necessary’: its value for readers is at one with its urgency of expression to the human being drowning in the experience it attempts to redeem . . . It’s impossible not to read \u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e in a spirit of generosity and communion.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eObserver, “Book of the Day” (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The ever-resilient author manages to inject levity and revelatory catharsis into his daunting ‘new reality.’ . . . Kureishi harrowingly reminds us that it takes just one fall to upend an entire lifetime, forever. [He] refashion[s] his life after an accident—with grace, dignity, and black humor.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An admirable account of an arduous journey traversing a dreadful injury, metamorphosis, healing, and acceptance.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A literary tour de force. . . . \u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e covers the full gamut, leaving us even still wanting more.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Gripping . . . . \u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e is most jarring and captivating when it takes us into the alternate reality of the hospital, where time slows to nearly a standstill and odd rites replace familiar ones. . . . Art should ‘frighten, if not alarm.’ I am glad this book does.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“You’d think a book about a paralyzed man lying in hospital for a year would be bound to be depressing. It never is. Hanif Kureishi is such an exhilarating writer. . . . I’ve never felt tempted to use the word ‘inspirational’ about a book, and promise I never will again, but it’s the only word I can think of to describe \u003cem\u003eShattered.”\u003c\/em\u003e  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Spectator (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Shattered\u003c\/em\u003e, a bare, tumultuous memoir of the first year of Kureishi’s new life. . . [is] simultaneously the story of his mind’s entrapment in his body and his attempt to outrun that restriction with radical transparency. . . . \u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e is akin to a war diary, prizing immediacy above all else.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAtlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Offer[s] an unflinching look at Kureishi’s affliction. . . . Amid the monotony of hospital routines and physiotherapy sessions, writing becomes Kureishi’s anchor: ‘I am determined to keep writing, it has never mattered to me more.’” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker (\"Briefly Noted\")\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Extraordinary, unique, and unputdownable . . . an exceptional volume as original as Jean-Dominique Bauby’s stroke classic \u003cem\u003eThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly \u003c\/em\u003e[and] as profound and affected as Salman Rushdie’s \u003cem\u003eKnife . . . \u003c\/em\u003eThis fall provoked a rare, and inspiring, defiance . . . \u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e, with its unique authorship, has become a life-saver. For the reader, this compounds the intensity of its witness.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndependent (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A thoroughly compelling, and deeply harrowing, account of Kureishi’s life . . . few could write about it with the piercing candor and clarity that Kureishi has done. There is frustration, anger, sometimes despair, but not a trace of self-pity.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Raw and earnest . . . Kureishi’s fans will find \u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e wildly inspiring; his singular voice, his bawdy humor, his efforts to create meaning, all so characteristic and moving . . . I can’t wait to read everything he has to write.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGuardian (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hanif Kureishi has long been one of the most exciting, irreverent, influential voices of his generation. In this beautiful, moving memoir he deals with personal calamity with wit, unflinching honesty and literary grace. It’s an extraordinary achievement.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSalman Rushdie\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Very moving and often funny . . . There are two surprising things about [\u003cem\u003eShattered\u003c\/em\u003e]: the first is that there's no self-pity or self-regard, even if there's a Lear-like fury with the injustice of fate; the second is that it's a love story – love of his partner, his ex-wife, his three sons, his late father and his many friends. \"I will make something of this,” he says of his experiences. And, with the help of those who love him, he's achieved something altogether remarkable.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRichard Eyre\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Much is shattered in this remarkable, unsentimental account of a devastating fall, but some things remain perfectly intact. Hanif's humor, talent, curiosity, clarity, and perversity – all are present and correct. I loved it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eZadie Smith\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Powerful, harrowing, and utterly absorbing. It will change the way you connect with life—and love.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eElif Shafak\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Darkly funny . . . . Kureishi . . . relates with bracing candor the indignities and psychological anguish associated with the sudden loss of personal autonomy.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“Shattered \u003c\/em\u003eis bracingly candid, frequently funny but harrowing too.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An awe-inspiring, soul-searing piece of writing, and painfully essential reading.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNigella Lawson\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ecco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44890685047013,"sku":"NP9780063360501","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063360501.jpg?v=1730233845","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/shattered-a-memoir-isbn-9780063360501","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}