Paralysed Kureishi ‘starting to feel normal once again’
HANIF KUREISHI says he has “started to feel like a normal person” after a fall 18 months ago left him paralysed.
The writer has rediscovered the joy of listening to music, is working on his memoir and has been attending rehearsals for an RSC adaptation of his novel, The Buddha of Suburbia.
“It makes me very happy that my work is still alive after I nearly died,” Kureishi said. “I’ve started to feel like a normal person. Writing gives me a sense of self-esteem and dignity. That I’m not just a broken body.”
He told the Guardian: “I still have health issues. Every day is a lucky day for me. Working really keeps me believing in something worthwhile in my life.”
Kureishi’s life changed on Boxing Day 2022 when he was in Rome with his partner, Isabella. He passed out and came around to find himself paralysed. He was in hospital for more than a year.
While guest editing Today four months ago, Kureishi, 69, said he could no longer listen to music. “I think it would be too moving, I think it would be too upsetting. I would feel so awful about myself and so depressed about my situation,” he said.
However, he says in the new interview: “I’ve gone back to music now. I just couldn’t listen to all the stuff I loved in that horrible, depressing atmosphere with nurses and doctors.
“But I’m back home now, and I’ve got my kids, my friends and my world around me. I’m trying to resume my working life again.”
Kureishi is dictating his memoir,
Shattered, via his family, as he did with the blog written from his hospital bed, which was written with the help of his son, Carlo.
He joked: “My kids call me The Great Dictator because I shout at them and they write it down… I’ve started to really enjoy writing in this way.”