Shattered
by Hanif Kureishi.
Ecco, 328 pp., $28.00
Hanif Kureishi, the English playwright, screenwriter, and novelist, posted these words on his Substack in January 2023:
On Boxing Day, in Rome, after taking a comfortable walk to the Piazza del Popolo, followed by a stroll through the Villa Borghese, and then back to the apartment, I had a fall.
I had been following Kureishi’s Substack for a while out of admiration, curiosity, and loyalty—though I’d met him only once, briefly. (His partner, Isabella D’Amico, and her family are old friends.) His dispatches were warm and entertaining, often about the writer’s life. But this one was shocking:
I cannot move my arms and legs. I cannot scratch my nose, make a phone call or feed myself. As you can imagine, this is…