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The Day My Brain Exploded
- Author
- Ashok Rajamani
- Narrator
- Ashok Rajamani
- Publish Date
- 9 January 2015
- Run Time
- 5 hours 53 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
After a full-throttle brain bleed at the age of twenty-five, Ashok Rajamani, a first-generation Indian American, had to be reborn, relearning the most basic of things, piecing together a past, reclaiming a life, and coping with the societal prejudice inflicted on those with traumatic injury. With humor, spirit, and insight, he describes the catastrophic event (his brain exploded just before his brother's wedding!), as well as the long, difficult recovery period. In the process, he introduces readers to his family—his principal support group, as well as a constant source of frustration and amazement. Irreverent, coruscating, at times shocking, but always revelatory, this audio production of his critically acclaimed memoir takes the listener into unfamiliar territory, much like the experience Alice had when she fell down the rabbit hole. That Ashok lived to tell the story is miraculous; that he tells it with such aplomb is simply remarkable.
Critics Review
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“Good-humored and self-deprecating…deals with his drama elegantly.”
Harper’s
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“Frightening, raw, droll, and hopeful.”
NPR
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“First-time author Rajamani delivers a fascinating look at his life and his recovery as a brain-injury patient that is both heartbreaking and uplifting.”
Publishers Weekly
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“Brilliant and engaging. Perfect sarcastic humor…a hilarious, irreverent, fascinating, Holden Caulfield-esque story of a twenty-five-year-old ‘brain-damaged, Indian American redneck.’"
School Library Journal
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“In this frank and witty account of his own brain ‘explosion,’ Rajamani describes in vivid detail the circumstances leading to the injury and its devastating aftermath on both his family and himself…With disarming drollery, the author also recounts his racism-tainted upbringing as an Indian American in white-dominated suburban Chicago. Shedding much-needed light on a little-known medical trauma, Rajamani’s sharp-edged prose is both informative and inspiring.”
Booklist
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“A rich, colorful audiobook that will absorb you into the planet of a brain hemorrhage survivor and leave you smiling through tears.”
Belo Miguel Cipriani, author of Blind: A Memoir
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“A fierce, funny, fascinating memoir of a man’s battle back from a brain injury that damaged his body but resurrected his spirit and the meaning of his life.”
Wade Rouse, author of At Least in the City Someone Could Hear Me Scream
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“A groundbreaking masterpiece. With a vibrant and sonorous voice, Ashok narrates his own survival story with razor-sharp wit, charm, humor, and emotion, intimately capturing the depth of his hard-fought journey back to life. In the process, he has crafted an inspiring work which is simultaneously exhilarating, moving, and (at times) outrageous. One of the best audiobooks I’ve ever heard on brain injury.”
Dr. Gregory O’Shanick, Medical Director Emeritus, Brain Injury Association of America
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"The Day My Brain Exploded is a memoir of epistemology. Ashok Rajamani shares how a man rebuilds a life of the mind. His prose is at once witty and probing, persistent and clear. If the brain could write an autobiography, this would be it.”
Stephen Kuusisto, author of Planet of the Blind
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Ashok Rajamani
- Narrator
- Ashok Rajamani
- Duration
- 5 hours 53 minutes
- Release Date
- 9 January 2015
- ISBN
- 9781483097138
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Biography: science, technology and medicine, Coping with illness and specific health conditions, Neurology and clinical neurophysiology, Memoirs
Synopsis
After a full-throttle brain bleed at the age of twenty-five, Ashok Rajamani, a first-generation Indian American, had to be reborn, relearning the most basic of things, piecing together a past, reclaiming a life, and coping with the societal prejudice inflicted on those with traumatic injury. With humor, spirit, and insight, he describes the catastrophic event (his brain exploded just before his brother's wedding!), as well as the long, difficult recovery period. In the process, he introduces readers to his family—his principal support group, as well as a constant source of frustration and amazement. Irreverent, coruscating, at times shocking, but always revelatory, this audio production of his critically acclaimed memoir takes the listener into unfamiliar territory, much like the experience Alice had when she fell down the rabbit hole. That Ashok lived to tell the story is miraculous; that he tells it with such aplomb is simply remarkable.
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