1: 'A bomb went off in my life.'

Art Malik reads Hanif Kureishi's brutally frank memoir of life after the fall that left him almost completely paralysed.

‘A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me.’

On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs, and was now completely dependent on the help of others, requiring constant hospital care. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Italy and the UK, 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, and, unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate his thoughts to family members. The result is an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed – a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage. It's also a portrait of a new life, shaped by new feelings – of gratitude, humility and love.

Today: Kureishi wakes to find himself lying in a pool of blood, unable to move. As he and his partner wait for the ambulance, his first thought is the life he will now miss..

Writer: Hanif Kureishi is an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist. His novels include the award-winning The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy, and his screenplays include the Oscar-nominated My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus.
Reader: Art Malik
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson
Producer: Justine Willett