A life of independence and literary renown is irrevocably altered in Shattered: A Memoir by British Pakistani novelist and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi. In a series of reflective, chucklesome, and sometimes brooding "dispatches" from his hospital bed in Rome and later in London, Kureishi narrates his consequential year of recovery after the Christmas 2022 fall and spinal injury that resulted in tetraplegia.
For Kureishi (The Buddha of Suburbia; The Nothing), a writer known for his irreverent humor and flair for capturing the gritty realities of life, the ability freely to express himself is his most precious asset. Here, readers will find his writerly talents in full bloom even as he must renegotiate all other aspects of his life.
Shattered opens in January 2023 at Rome's Gemelli Hospital. Kureishi was unable to move his limbs and communicated by dictating diary-like entries to his partner, Isabella, and his sons, Sachin, Carlo, and Kier, as they circled in and out of his hospital room. His immobility didn't stop Kureishi from appreciating the more farcical aspects of his medical care, including the time a nurse excitedly mistook him for Salman Rushdie.
When he was wheeled into the gym for physiotherapy, Kureishi realized, "This is the first time I have ever been in a gym." His physiotherapist Fabio resembled "a romantic lead in a movie," and the hospital was also where he received his first pedicure. Kureishi was not immune to "the rage of helplessness" but it didn't consume him. As he describes cappuccinos with a fellow patient he dubbed "the Maestro" and visits from friends, he recalls Great Britain's multiracial transformation during the 1960s and the influence his father, "a civil servant at the Pakistani Embassy in London," had on his career.
The dominant theme of Kureishi's work, present in his Oscar-nominated screenplay for the iconic film My Beautiful Laundrette as well as his novels, is "the bewitching mischief of sexuality." He is comically direct about the indignities he endures as "the man with no hands" and his lack of libido. He also ponders past sexual escapades and a long-ago job writing pornography.
It is Isabella, devoted to and exhausted by his care, to whom Kureishi dedicates this memoir. He has faith they can find "a new way of loving each other." In spite of everything he has lost, Kureishi is determined to write. "It has never mattered to me more," he declares, accepting an astonishing new reality in which "all I have left is speech." --Shahina Piyarali
Shelf Talker: An acclaimed British Pakistani novelist and screenwriter shares reflections and humorous observations from his hospital bed in Rome and later in London as he adjusts to his new life with tetraplegia.