Overview

A BESTSELLER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ""Perceptive--and lacerating--about the pressures felt by disabled people to be cured ... A plea to those with well-functioning bodies to be aware of what they have.""--Sunday Times Melanie Reid was fifty-two years old when she fell from her horse, broke her neck, and was paralyzed from the chest down. In an instant, her life changed forever. In The World I Fell Into, Melanie describes how she spent nearly one year in the hospital, working toward gaining as much movement in her body as possible, and learning to navigate her way through a world that had previously been invisible to her. As a journalist, she had always turned to words. As a quadriplegic person, her mind was still working: she could speak, record her voice, and use a laptop with one finger. Writing would be her lifeline. Melanie writes about disability, recovery, trauma, and relationships with both a generous spirit, frank honesty, and an irreverent sense of humor. Above all, she offers an authentic message of hope: The World I Fell Into reminds us to practice gratitude for what we have, right now, for the world can change in a moment's notice.

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9781771647656

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Reviews

Reid reveals with insight, candour and courage what it's like to find yourself suddenly inhabiting a world that was previously unknown to you ... a powerful, life-affirming memoir. --Guardian Reading this will change you. --Andrew Marr, journalist and author of A History of the World Searingly honest and frank ... A very personal tale that makes you laugh and cry ... captivating. --Telegraph A generous, life-changing book ... some of the most insightful writing on what it means to be human that I have ever read. --Clover Stroud, author of The Wild Other Perceptive--and lacerating--about the pressures felt by disabled people to be cured ... Above all, the book is a plea to those still living with well-functioning bodies to be aware of what they have. To love themselves and relish their ability to dance, run, go to the lavatory without help. With serious disability can come wisdom and perspective, and Reid passionately urges fellow women to set aside their self-loathing and 'get out there and live.' --Sunday Times This is an astonishing and riveting book ... It is horrifying, certainly, frightening in as much as it shows how we are all skating, as it were, on the thinnest of ice which may break at any moment, plunging us into the darkest and coldest of deep waters; but also encouraging because it is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit--as well as to the care and expertise of our health service. --Alan Massie, Scotsman A vital, profound story shot through with insight and revelations. Melanie Reid has written the most important book of 2019. --Susanna Forrest, author of If Wishes Were Horses It's beautiful--full of love and light--and an exploration into not only how, but why we survive, despite everything. --Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness Reid's writing is excellent, beautifully paced and sometimes shockingly truthful. And my God, this woman is brave, not only for revealing all the gory details, but for questioning those tiresome platitudes about positivity. ... Not a breath of fresh air, more of a hurricane. --Kate Saunders, Times (UK)

Author Information

Melanie Reid is an award-winning British journalist and a Member of the Order of the British Empire. She writes the weekly Spinal Column for the Times Saturday Magazine (UK) about her life as a disabled person. Melanie lives in Stirlingshire, Scotland.

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