Shattered is Hanif Kureishi’s memoir of a fall in Rome, the hospital care and upheaval that followed, and his effort to keep writing. Built from dispatches he dictated while hospitalized, the book brings those accounts together with new writing. Its candor and humor sit alongside a blunt account of bodily vulnerability and dependence—not a simple story of recovery.
What is Shattered about?
Shattered is a memoir, not a novel. It follows the sudden rupture in Kureishi’s life after a fall in Rome and his experience of hospitalization, dependence, and adapting to writing in a new way. The book is concerned not only with what happened, but with how he observed and described a life altered by it.
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Shattered: A Memoir | $11.22 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Black Album with My Son the Fanatic: A Novel and a Short Story | $19.97 | Buy on Amazon |
Kureishi fell on Boxing Day 2022. The Guardian reported that he was rushed to intensive care after the fall; the account here does not presume further medical details or a prognosis. In an extract from the memoir published by the Guardian, Kureishi begins: “On Boxing Day, in Rome, after taking a walk to the Piazza del Popolo, followed by a stroll through the Villa Borghese, then back to the apartment, I had a fall.” Read the extract in the Guardian.
How did Kureishi write it?
While in hospital, Kureishi dictated dispatches that he shared online. Those pieces provided the starting point for the memoir, but the published book is more than a collected feed: Penguin describes the dispatches as “edited, expanded and meticulously interwoven with new writing.” The Guardian’s 2023 announcement likewise reported that the memoir would expand on the material he had been sharing.
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Simon Prosser, publishing director of Hamish Hamilton, said he was “electrified by the words he began sending out into the world in January as Twitter threads, detailing his thoughts, feelings and memories, as they came to him, with extraordinary clarity, force and composure.” The quotation captures the immediacy of those early dispatches; the finished memoir gives them a shaped context. The Guardian’s announcement of the memoir and Penguin’s book listing describe its origins and form.
What is the memoir’s tone?
The book’s account of changed circumstances is direct about the body and the experience of needing help. It also uses humor and observation rather than treating adversity as a tidy lesson. A Guardian review emphasizes its candor about bodily reality, hospital life, and a changed existence; that is one critic’s interpretation, not a promise that every reader will respond identically. Read the Guardian review.
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- Great one for reading
- Easy to read text
That mixture matters to the headline’s language of courage. Kureishi’s persistence in finding a way to write can be read as courageous, but the memoir should not be reduced to an inspirational recovery narrative. In a Guardian interview, he discusses the shift from independence to dependence and learning to write differently. Read the interview.
How does Shattered relate to Kureishi’s earlier work?
Kureishi was already known for The Buddha of Suburbia and for writing the screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette. The Guardian’s interview places Shattered against that career: the memoir’s circumstances are radically different, while questions of identity and belonging have long featured in his work. Here, those concerns are refracted through a personal account of dependence, disrupted routines, and the work of making language under new conditions.
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- Used Book in Good Condition
When was Shattered published?
The memoir was published in 2024. Dates vary by market and format: Penguin Books Australia lists 31 October 2024 for its ebook edition. That date applies to the Australian ebook listing, not necessarily to every print or international edition. See Penguin Books Australia’s edition listing.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Who is the book for?
Shattered is a strong choice for readers interested in Kureishi’s writing, candid memoir, or the way a writer makes sense of profound change through language. Its value is in the specificity of his reported experience and the voice he brings to it—not in offering a general account of disability or a formula for recovery.
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- Used Book in Good Condition
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