Metamorphosis
A Life in Pieces
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst author
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Published: 16th Feb '23
£18.99
Available, normally delivered within 3-6 days.
A darkly comic and moving reflection on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain, from the award-winning Oxford professor
We all have trapdoors in our lives. Sometimes we jump off just in time ... But sometimes we are unlucky. My own trapdoor was hidden in the consulting room of an Oxford neurologist.
When the trapdoor opened for Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, he plummeted into a world of MRI scans, a disobedient body and the crushing unpredictability of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. But, like Alice tumbling into Wonderland, his fall did something else. It took him deep into his own mind: his hopes, his fears, his loves and losses, and the books that would sustain, inform and nourish him as his life began to transform in ways he could never have imagined.
From Kafka to Barbellion, this is a literary map of the journey from the kingdom of the well to the land of the sick, and forwards into a hopeful future. It's an ode to great writing, to storytelling, to science and to the power of the imagination.
'A pitch-perfect memoir: stylish, erudite, touchingly honest and darkly funny' Jacqueline Wilson
Metamorphosis is the best book I have read about multiple sclerosis, and that is because it is about so much more... it is simply a beautiful piece of writing. * The Times *
An outstanding feat of bravery and brio... [and a] riveting account of the metamorphosis he has endured... [a] buoyantly written, piercingly perceptive book. * Sunday Times *
Heartening and unexpectedly gripping... an immensely powerful book... it persuasively builds the case for the ability of stories to offer hope and solace; to help us become ourselves, over and over, even in extremis. * Spectator *
[Douglas-Fairhurst] has written a memoir that is not miserable. It's funny and raw... Magical: pages speed by, fuelled by the author's formidable intellect. * Financial Times, *Book of the Week* *
A brilliant account of one man's tilted world following a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. -- Observer
Level-headed and informative... What he [Douglas-Fairhurst] gives us isn't just the story of an illness but a story about the importance of stories. * Guardian *
A pitch-perfect memoir: stylish, erudite, touchingly honest and darkly funny. -- Jacqueline Wilson, author of The Story of Tracy Beaker
This is a beautiful and devastating portrayal of a life-changing diagnosis ... It is what the best writing should be: a book that will stay with you for life. -- Natalie Haynes, author of A Thousand Ships
For all its grim subject the book is an unexpected delight. * Literary Review *
Metamorphosis... is written by an entertaining storyteller and offers a rare insight into a situation that few people will have to face, but that it does us good to contemplate. * Mail on Sunday *
ISBN: 9781787334250
Dimensions: 222mm x 144mm x 27mm
Weight: 392g
272 pages
