'Fascinating ... compelling ... very funny' Sunday Times 'A defiant
call to arms ... affecting ... lingers long in the memory after its
final page' Morning Star 'A skilful act of literary witness, sharp,
moving and funny' Joanne Limburg 'Christoph Keller ... ranks among
the great Swiss writers' Neue Zürcher Zeitung Most stories of
disability follow a familiar pattern: Life Before Accident. Life
After Accident. For Christoph Keller, it was different: his
childhood diagnosis with a form of Spinal Muscular Atrophy only
revealed what had been with him since birth. SMA III, the 'kindest
one', allows those who have it to live a long life, and it
progresses slowly. There is no cure. By the age of 25, he had to
use a wheelchair some of the time. 'There were two of me: Walking
Me. Rolling Me.' By 32, he could still walk into a restaurant with
a cane or on somebody's arm. At 45, 'Rolling Me' took over
altogether. Intimate, absurdist and winningly frank, Every Cripple
a Superhero is at once a memoir of life with a progressive
disorder, and a profound exploration of the challenges of loving,
being loved, and living a public life - navigating restaurants,
aeroplanes, museums and artists' retreats - in a world not designed
for you. Threaded throughout are Keller's own photographs of the
unexpected beauty found in puddle-filled 'curb cuts', the pavement
ramps that, left to disintegrate, form part of the urban obstacle
course. Those puddles become portals into a different, truer city;
and, as they do, so this book - told with humour and immense grace
- begins to uncover a truer world: one where the 'normal' is not
normal, where disability is far more widespread than we might
think, and where there always exist, just alongside our own, the
lives of everyday superheroes.
General
Imprint: |
Penguin
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
July 2023 |
Authors: |
Christoph Keller
|
Dimensions: |
198 x 129 x 11mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
192 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-80206-099-7 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-80206-099-5 |
Barcode: |
9781802060997 |
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