Hanif Kureishi

From acclaimed author and playwright Hanif Kureishi comes an urgent and stunning memoir about rebuilding a new life in the wake of devastating physical loss. In late 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he realized he could no longer walk. He could do nothing without the help of others and required constant care in a hospital. So began a yearlong odyssey through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home to his house in London. While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, but being unable to type or hold a pen, he began to dictate to family members the words that formed in his head--thoughts on his medical condition, but also parenthood, immigration, sex, psychoanalysis, and, of course, writing. The result was an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed: a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, humor, and verve. Shattered takes these dispatches--edited, expanded, and meticulously interwoven with new writing--and charts both a shattering and a reassembling: a new life born of pain and loss but also animated by new feelings of gratitude, humility, and love.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2025From Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia, a memoir about the accident that left him paralysed.‘I’ve never felt tempted to use the word “inspirational” about a book, and promise I never will again, but it’s the only word I can think of to describe Shattered’ Lynn Barber, The SpectatorImagine your life changing in a second: one minute you are watching the football with a beer, the next you are on the floor in a pool of blood, deprived of the use of your arms and legs. This fall renders you paralysed, robbed of your independence, entirely reliant on others for everything. This happened to writer Hanif Kureishi on Boxing Day 2022. His account of what happened and its aftermath is a unique, riveting and frequently riotous account of a year-long odyssey home through five hospitals. From despair to hope, rage to courage, it might be the most truthful, and the funniest, medical disaster story ever written.‘Incredible. A remarkable tale of resilience – and surprisingly funny’ iNews‘Heartbreaking. [A] masterpiece of British stoicism. Intimate, brave and uplifting’ Independent‘Wildly inspiring. His singular voice, his bawdy humour, his efforts to create meaning, all so characteristic and moving’ Guardian

From acclaimed author and playwright Hanif Kureishi comes an urgent and stunning memoir about rebuilding a new life in the wake of devastating physical loss. In late 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he realized he could no longer walk. He could do nothing without the help of others and required constant care in a hospital. So began a yearlong odyssey through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home to his house in London. While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, but being unable to type or hold a pen, he began to dictate to family members the words that formed in his head--thoughts on his medical condition, but also parenthood, immigration, sex, psychoanalysis, and, of course, writing. The result was an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed: a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, humor, and verve. Shattered takes these dispatches--edited, expanded, and meticulously interwoven with new writing--and charts both a shattering and a reassembling: a new life born of pain and loss but also animated by new feelings of gratitude, humility, and love.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2025From Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia, a memoir about the accident that left him paralysed.___________________‘A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.’On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs. He could no longer walk, write or wash himself. He could do nothing without the help of others, and required constant care in a hospital. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Rome and Italy, with the hope of somehow being able to return home, to his house in London. While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, but being unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate to family members the words which formed in his head. The result was an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed – a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage. This book takes these hospital dispatches – edited, expanded and meticulously interwoven with new writing – and charts both a shattering and a reassembling: a new life born of pain and loss, but animated by new feelings – of gratitude, humility and love.‘Moving, funny, remarkable’ Richard Eyre'Extraordinary, unique and unputdownable' Independent

My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred. Almost. South London in the late seventies. High unemployment, high inflation, food shortages and strikes. But despite the winter of discontent, 17-year-old Karim’s life is about to explode into glorious technicolour as he navigates a path to enlightenment. Or at the very least, Beckenham. Emma Rice adapts the award-winning 1990 novel, which was later turned into an acclaimed TV series, with Hanif Kureishi. On stage it becomes an irresistible, heart-breaking and joyful exploration of family, friends, sex, theatre and, ultimately, belonging. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the RSC in April 2024.

This collection begins in the early 1980s with The Rainbow Sign, which was written as the Introduction to the screenplay of My Beautiful Laundrette. It allowed Kureishi to expand upon the issues raised by the film: race, class, sexuality - issues that were provoked by his childhood and family situation. In the ensuing decades, he has developed these initial ideas, especially as the issue of Islam's relation to the West has become one of the burning issues of the time. Kureishi shows how flexible a form the essay can be - as intellectual as Sontag or Adam Phillips, as informal and casual as Max Beerbohm, as cool and minimalist as Joan Didion, or as provocative as Norman Mailer. As with his fictional work, these essays display Kureishi's ability to capture the temper of the times.

'No one else casts such a shrewd and gimlet eye on contemporary life.' - William BoydComic, dark and insightful, What Happened? is Hanif Kureishi's new collection of essays and fiction. No topic is too fringe or too mainstream for this insatiable-and much-loved-author. From social media to the ancient classics, from appraisals of David Bowie to Georges Simenon to Keith Jarrett, this is the latest literary 'event' in a unique body of work that displays Kureishi's characteristic boundless curiosity and wit. What Happened? is as much about the very fact of Kureishi's catholic appetite for culture as his observations and insights themselves, and any new book in his oeuvre is a justification for celebration.

Writing seems to be a problem of some kind. It isn't as if most people can just sit down and start to write brilliantly, get up from the desk, so something else all day, and then, next morning start again without any conflict or anxiety. To begin to write - to attempt to do anything creative, for that matter - is to ask many other questions, not only about the craft itself, but of oneself, and of life. The blank empty page is a representation of this helplessness. Who am I? it asks. How should I live? Who do I want to be? Dreaming and Scheming collects some of the very best of the non-fiction writings by Hanif Kureishi. These include political essays; diaries; accounts of his collaborations in film and television, and above all, exploration of how the life of the mind expresses itself in creative endeavours. Kureishi's energies and insights make this collection essential for admirers of his work, and for anyone who aspires to be a writer.

Jamal Khan, a psychoanalyst in his fifties living in London, is haunted by memories of his teens: his first love, Ajita; the exhilaration of sex, drugs and politics; and a brutal act of violence which changed his life for ever. As he and his best friend Henry attempt to make the sometimes painful, sometimes comic transition to their divorced middle age, balancing the conflicts of desire and dignity, Jamal's teenage traumas make a shocking return into his present life.

Mamoon is an eminent Indian-born writer who has made a career in England -- but now, in his early seventies, his reputation is fading, his book sales have dried up and his new wife has expensive tastes. Harry, a young writer, is commissioned to write a biography to revitalise Mamoon's career. He greatly admires Mamoon's work and wants to uncover the truth of the artist's life, but Harry's publisher seeks a more salacious tale of sex and scandal to generate headlines. Meanwhile, Mamoon himself is mining a different truth altogether -- but which one of them will have the last word?

Gabriel is a fifteen-year-old North London schoolboy trying to come to terms with a new life, after the equilibrium of his family home has been shattered by the ousting of his father. Fending for himself, Gabriel is forced to grow up quickly. But a chance meeting with a seventies rock star crystallises the turbulent emotions inside Gabriel, and helps him to recognise and engage with his rare gift . . .