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Metamorphosis
- Author
- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
- Narrator
- Peter Caulfield
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 16 February 2023
- Run Time
- 7 hours 8 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
"We all have trapdoors in our lives. Sometimes we jump off just in time: we defuse an argument with a joke; we swerve to prevent a traffic accident. But sometimes we are unlucky enough to be on the trapdoor when the lever is pulled. 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. And, above all, it's a darkly comic and moving reflection on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain.
© Robert Douglas-Fairhurst 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023
Critics Review
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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
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A pitch-perfect memoir: stylish, erudite, touchingly honest and darkly funny.
Jacqueline Wilson, author of The Story of Tracy Beaker
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An outstanding feat of bravery and brio... A buoyantly written, piercingly perceptive book.
Sunday Times
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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
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The writing is all elegance and wit.
The Times, *2023's Top 50 Non-Fiction Books*
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An account of living with multiple sclerosis that is both deeply literary and painfully honest as it charts his journey into ill health.
Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*
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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
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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
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While this book deals with distress, physical pain and uncertainty, its wry humour and lightness of touch make it anything but a misery memoir... Superb.
Times Literary Supplement
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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*
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
- Narrator
- Peter Caulfield
- Duration
- 7 hours 8 minutes
- Release Date
- 16 February 2023
- ISBN
- 9781529902112
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Memoirs, Coping with / advice about chronic or long-term illness or conditions, Disability: social aspects, Literary studies: general
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin."We all have trapdoors in our lives. Sometimes we jump off just in time: we defuse an argument with a joke; we swerve to prevent a traffic accident. But sometimes we are unlucky enough to be on the trapdoor when the lever is pulled. 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. And, above all, it's a darkly comic and moving reflection on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain.© Robert Douglas-Fairhurst 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023
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