The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

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On 8 December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, a 42-year-old father of two and editor-in-chief of Elle Magazine n Paris, suffered a massive stroke and slipped into a come. When he regained consciousness three weeks later, he was paralysed, speechless and only able to move one muscle: his left eyelid. Yet his mind remained as active and alert as ever. By signalling with his eyelid he 'dictated' this book, blinking to indicate each individual letter as an alphabet was repeatedly read to him. Trapped inside his own body, his dispatches are poignant and often wryly humorous. He tells us about his new life in a hospital overlooking the English Channel, the flights of fancy that sustain him, the meals he can only eat in his imagination. And the describes with special care his feelings for his two young children. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly was first published in France in March 1997 and became an immediate bestseller. it is a book about the ability to invent a life for oneself in the most appalling of circumstances; one of the most remarkable books about the triumph of the human spirit that you will ever read.