Shattered

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2025 
 
From Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia, a memoir about the accident that left him paralysed. 
 
‘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 Shattered’ Lynn Barber, The Spectator 
 
Imagine your life changing in a second: one minute you are watching the football with a beer, the next you are on the floor in a pool of blood, deprived of the use of your arms and legs. This fall renders you paralysed, robbed of your independence, entirely reliant on others for everything. 
 
This happened to writer Hanif Kureishi on Boxing Day 2022. His account of what happened and its aftermath is a unique, riveting and frequently riotous account of a year-long odyssey home through five hospitals. From despair to hope, rage to courage, it might be the most truthful, and the funniest, medical disaster story ever written. 
 
‘Incredible. A remarkable tale of resilience – and surprisingly funny’ iNews 
 
‘Heartbreaking. [A] masterpiece of British stoicism. Intimate, brave and uplifting’ Independent 
 
‘Wildly inspiring. His singular voice, his bawdy humour, his efforts to create meaning, all so characteristic and moving’ Guardian

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

A thoroughly compelling, and deeply harrowing, account of Kureishi’s life . . . few could write about it with the piercing candour and clarity that Kureishi has done. There is frustration, anger, sometimes despair, but not a trace of self-pity

Raw and earnest . . . Kureishi’s fans will find Shattered wildly inspiring; his singular voice, his bawdy humour, his efforts to create meaning, all so characteristic and moving . . . I can’t wait to read everything he has to write

An enthralling report on how a person can be forced to reckon with sudden, shocking change . . . Shattered 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 Shattered in a spirit of generosity and communion

Kureishi, a taboo-buster since his days as a punk-era playwright, has always hunted for the freedom, even joy, hiding on the other side of shame. He still does . . . Shattered trumpets the strength of his droll and trenchant voice above the ‘random evil stuff’ that ‘can happen to you at any time’ . . . His dispatches from the planet of paralysis draw on the good habits of a writing lifetime — clarity, comedy, courage, unshockable attentiveness — to depict a self, and a family, “smashed, remade and altered” . . . Only Kureishi could have rebuilt these pieces of a fractured life so well

[Shattered is] an authentic depiction of Kureishi’s whirring mind, particularly in the constant alternation of hope and despair . . . At one point, he sternly declares that writing is “not therapy for the writer but entertainment for the reader”. Yet, while the entertainment here is of a complicated kind, Shattered shows, triumphantly, that it’s possible to combine the two

Shattered is a remarkable tale of resilience - and surprisingly funny . . . Kureishi has always been notable for his scabrous humour and its use here shoves Shattered away from tragedy . . . No matter how ruinous Kureishi's own transformation has been, his resilience and his determination to continue are inspiring. Meanwhile, Shattered offers ample proof of his continuing literary prowess, paralysed or not. "I am determined to keep writing," he says. "It has never mattered to me more."

You’d think a book about a paralysed man lying in hospital for a year would be bound to be depressing. It never is. Hanif Kureishi is such an exhilarating writer that you read agog even when he’s describing having his nappies changed . . . The irresistible thing about Kureishi is that he is passionately interested in other people . . . 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 Shattered

Shattered is bracingly candid, frequently funny but harrowing too . . . The book shares many points in common with Salman Rushdie’s Knife — both ferociously eloquent accounts of horrific, bizarre, life-changing events — but Shattered is bleaker . . . It’s brave of Kureishi and his publishers not to cop out and strike a note of false optimism. They make the reader sit with the unvarnished and unromantic reality of his condition. Kureishi pledges “I will make something of this” and we admire him all the more for knowing it won’t be easy

[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

A uniquely powerful expression of writing at its limits

Times Literary Supplement, 'Book of the Year 2024'

A raw, unflinching and sometimes darkly funny meditation on a life in pieces, as a longing for his former existence eventually recedes to make way for a form of acceptance

Independent, 'Best biographies and memoirs of 2024'

I loved and admired Hanif Kureishi’s memoir Shattered, in which he brilliantly faces a physical catastrophe with honesty, courage, and his characteristic dark humour

Gripping . . . . Shattered 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

Intimate, brave and uplifting . . . A heart-breaking account of the writer's life-changing paralysis, confronting a terrible medical emergency with wit and brio in this masterpiece of British stoicism

An unforgettable, extraordinary feat, one of hospital wards, helplessness and pain, but also of resilience, hope, and learning to live again

A testament to family, love and the written word — as well as Kureishi’s own undimmed life-force

An incredible and wise and unflinching meditation on both the vulnerability and the resilience of being human

A candid and frequently affecting account . . . Kureishi’s road may never lead to a full physical recovery, but he continues to face his rehabilitation with courage and compassion

Splendidly unite[s] courage, comedy and defiant verve

A literary tour de force. . . . Shattered covers the full gamut, leaving us even still wanting more

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

An awe-inspiring, soul-searing piece of writing, and painfully essential reading

Much is shattered in this remarkable, unsentimental account of a devastating fall, but some things remain perfectly intact. Hanif's humour, talent, curiosity, clarity and perversity - all are present and correct. I loved it

Powerful, harrowing and utterly absorbing. It will change the way you connect with life—and love

Very moving and often funny . . . There are two surprising things about [Shattered]: 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

Kureishi harrowingly reminds us that it takes just one fall to upend an entire lifetime, forever. . . . Refashioning his life after an accident—with grace, dignity, and black humor

Extraordinary, intimate, humorous and heart-rending . . . brutally honest and utterly courageous. Kureishi concludes with the assertation: “I will not go under; I will make something of this.” And he has

An admirable account of an arduous journey traversing a dreadful injury, metamorphosis, healing, and acceptance

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.

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. 
 
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.

Hanif Kureishi

Carlo Kureishi

It would be hard to name a British writer of the past forty years who matches his range of achievement

The song ‘Are You with Me Now?’ was a regular soundtrack to the drives Hanif and partner Isabella would take from Rome to her mother’s house on the Amalfi Coast, both of them singing along as they skirted the Bay of Naples, in the time before the accident which paralysed him. 
 
This book takes its title from that music – and it is a question that has now become more urgent and more complex. Beginning with this memory of the past and ending with his marriage to Isabella and his first faltering steps, Hanif Kureishi, with son Carlo, charts how a writer, a couple and a family adapt to disability – through arguments and jokes, memories of lovers and friends, and a new way of working word by word at the kitchen table. 
 
Are You With Me Now? is a fiercely funny, unflinching account of survival – and of creativity, desire and companionship persisting when the body, and conventional life, fall apart.

Hanif Kureishi

Books by Hanif Kureishi

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