Hanif Kureishi: Shattered – Live Stream

On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he regained consciousness 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. Completely reliant on others, he required constant care in a hospital. Thus began a year-long journey through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of eventually returning to his home in London.

While confined to various hospital wards, he felt a strong urge to write. Unable to type or hold a pen, he began dictating his thoughts to family members. The result was an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed – a diary of a life in fragments, recorded with rare honesty, clarity, and courage.

As he 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 compiles 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 newfound feelings of gratitude, humility, and love.