Author: Alisa Kanti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 170
Book Description
Butterflies on your lips / Butterflies on my lips is the second book of poems written by Alisa Kanti. Walking through the city, on buses, in waiting rooms, at airports, Alisa Kanti used her mobile phone as a notebook to share the internal struggle that almost everyone endures in their life in order to find balance.After the success of her first book You Touched Me Deeply, She continued, more intensely than ever, her walk through the liquid landscape of emotions filled with love, loss, pain, and hope. Transforming feelings into words, words become poems, like butterflies walking from her lips to your lips. Alisa says: I wrote it after falling in love with someone who would change my life forever.He showed me how deep and intense the path to love can be. How every stone we walk on is a small part of the road to finding yourself. Our story started in my first book, You Touched Me Deeply. Where I loved him before loving.This book is the only original version, written and edited in Barcelona by Alisa Kanti and designed by Atelier Ô Paris.
Butterflies on Your Lips
Author: Alisa Kanti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 170
Book Description
Butterflies on your lips / Butterflies on my lips is the second book of poems written by Alisa Kanti. Walking through the city, on buses, in waiting rooms, at airports, Alisa Kanti used her mobile phone as a notebook to share the internal struggle that almost everyone endures in their life in order to find balance.After the success of her first book You Touched Me Deeply, She continued, more intensely than ever, her walk through the liquid landscape of emotions filled with love, loss, pain, and hope. Transforming feelings into words, words become poems, like butterflies walking from her lips to your lips. Alisa says: I wrote it after falling in love with someone who would change my life forever.He showed me how deep and intense the path to love can be. How every stone we walk on is a small part of the road to finding yourself. Our story started in my first book, You Touched Me Deeply. Where I loved him before loving.This book is the only original version, written and edited in Barcelona by Alisa Kanti and designed by Atelier Ô Paris.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 170
Book Description
Butterflies on your lips / Butterflies on my lips is the second book of poems written by Alisa Kanti. Walking through the city, on buses, in waiting rooms, at airports, Alisa Kanti used her mobile phone as a notebook to share the internal struggle that almost everyone endures in their life in order to find balance.After the success of her first book You Touched Me Deeply, She continued, more intensely than ever, her walk through the liquid landscape of emotions filled with love, loss, pain, and hope. Transforming feelings into words, words become poems, like butterflies walking from her lips to your lips. Alisa says: I wrote it after falling in love with someone who would change my life forever.He showed me how deep and intense the path to love can be. How every stone we walk on is a small part of the road to finding yourself. Our story started in my first book, You Touched Me Deeply. Where I loved him before loving.This book is the only original version, written and edited in Barcelona by Alisa Kanti and designed by Atelier Ô Paris.
Praise Song for the Butterflies
Author: Bernice L. McFadden
Publisher: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1617756512
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 194
Book Description
Longlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction A Black Caucus of the American Library Association 2019 Honor title, Fiction "McFadden, writer of great, imaginative novels for years now (including Sugar and Gathering of Waters), is back with one of her best yet. Exploring ritual sacrifice in contemporary West Africa, Praise Song offers a fascinating, painful glimpse into a world beyond America's shores, filled with tragedy and love and hope." --Entertainment Weekly "Perhaps one of the best books of the year, Praise Song for the Butterflies is a stunning, brief portrait that humanizes the plight of those in ritual servitude. It's a fantastic work from a gifted author." --The Gazette "A fictional West African country is the setting for Bernice L. McFadden's latest work, Praise Song for the Butterflies. Here we meet Abeo Kata, a 9-year-old girl who is ripped from her privileged lifestyle when her father forces her to become a slave in a religious sect. Rescued after 15 years, Abeo struggles to overcome dark family secrets while learning to love again." --Essence Magazine Included in BookRiot's "22 Upcoming Releases by Authors of Color Featured at BEA" "Bernice L. McFadden's novel Praise Song for the Butterflies has received great reviews and will be published today. The book centers on Abeo Kata, the privileged daughter of a government employee and a stay-at-home mother in West Africa whose happy life changes dramatically after she's placed in a shrine as an offering. Fifteen years later, Abeo is finally rescued and must learn to move beyond her traumatic past." --Good Morning America "McFadden crafts a compassionate, unforgettable story of loss and redemption." --BBC Culture "Recent favorites [at Mahogany Books in Washington, DC] include...award-winning novelist Bernice L. McFadden's forthcoming Praise Song for the Butterflies, about a nine-year-old West African girl sacrificed into religious servitude." --Vanity Fair "The novel has a timeless quality; McFadden is a master of taking you to another time and place. In doing so, she raises questions surrounding the nature of memory, what we allow to thrive, and what we determine to execute...McFadden brings the sweeping drama of her earlier works--The Book of Harlan, Glorious, Gathering of Waters--into this small book, and reminds me of the gentle fierceness of Edwidge Danticat's writing." --Los Angeles Review of Books "Praise Song for the Butterflies is written like a fable--one of devastation, but triumph, too. Bernice L. McFadden's novel sheds light on the long practice of trokosi, ritual servitude to priests." --Refinery29 Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the fifteen years she is held in the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past, endure the revelation of family secrets, and learn to trust and love again. In the tradition of Chris Cleave's Little Bee, this novel is a contemporary story that offers an eye-opening account of the practice of ritual servitude in West Africa. Spanning decades and two continents, Praise Song for the Butterflies will break your heart and then heal it.
Publisher: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1617756512
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 194
Book Description
Longlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction A Black Caucus of the American Library Association 2019 Honor title, Fiction "McFadden, writer of great, imaginative novels for years now (including Sugar and Gathering of Waters), is back with one of her best yet. Exploring ritual sacrifice in contemporary West Africa, Praise Song offers a fascinating, painful glimpse into a world beyond America's shores, filled with tragedy and love and hope." --Entertainment Weekly "Perhaps one of the best books of the year, Praise Song for the Butterflies is a stunning, brief portrait that humanizes the plight of those in ritual servitude. It's a fantastic work from a gifted author." --The Gazette "A fictional West African country is the setting for Bernice L. McFadden's latest work, Praise Song for the Butterflies. Here we meet Abeo Kata, a 9-year-old girl who is ripped from her privileged lifestyle when her father forces her to become a slave in a religious sect. Rescued after 15 years, Abeo struggles to overcome dark family secrets while learning to love again." --Essence Magazine Included in BookRiot's "22 Upcoming Releases by Authors of Color Featured at BEA" "Bernice L. McFadden's novel Praise Song for the Butterflies has received great reviews and will be published today. The book centers on Abeo Kata, the privileged daughter of a government employee and a stay-at-home mother in West Africa whose happy life changes dramatically after she's placed in a shrine as an offering. Fifteen years later, Abeo is finally rescued and must learn to move beyond her traumatic past." --Good Morning America "McFadden crafts a compassionate, unforgettable story of loss and redemption." --BBC Culture "Recent favorites [at Mahogany Books in Washington, DC] include...award-winning novelist Bernice L. McFadden's forthcoming Praise Song for the Butterflies, about a nine-year-old West African girl sacrificed into religious servitude." --Vanity Fair "The novel has a timeless quality; McFadden is a master of taking you to another time and place. In doing so, she raises questions surrounding the nature of memory, what we allow to thrive, and what we determine to execute...McFadden brings the sweeping drama of her earlier works--The Book of Harlan, Glorious, Gathering of Waters--into this small book, and reminds me of the gentle fierceness of Edwidge Danticat's writing." --Los Angeles Review of Books "Praise Song for the Butterflies is written like a fable--one of devastation, but triumph, too. Bernice L. McFadden's novel sheds light on the long practice of trokosi, ritual servitude to priests." --Refinery29 Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the fifteen years she is held in the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past, endure the revelation of family secrets, and learn to trust and love again. In the tradition of Chris Cleave's Little Bee, this novel is a contemporary story that offers an eye-opening account of the practice of ritual servitude in West Africa. Spanning decades and two continents, Praise Song for the Butterflies will break your heart and then heal it.
Paper Butterflies
Author: Lisa Heathfield
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab ®
ISBN: 1512482420
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 213
Book Description
June's life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one—and a secret one. Not even her dad knows the truth, and she can't find the words to tell anyone else. She's trapped like a butterfly in a net. Then June meets Blister, a boy from a large, loving, chaotic family. In him, she finds a glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away. Because she deserves her freedom. Doesn't she?
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab ®
ISBN: 1512482420
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 213
Book Description
June's life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one—and a secret one. Not even her dad knows the truth, and she can't find the words to tell anyone else. She's trapped like a butterfly in a net. Then June meets Blister, a boy from a large, loving, chaotic family. In him, she finds a glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away. Because she deserves her freedom. Doesn't she?
The Sound of Butterflies
Author: Rachael King
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 1869796411
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
An international bestseller this novel follows an unforgettable journey from the demure gentility of turn-of-the-twentieth-century England into the heart of darkness. In 1904, the young lepidopterist Thomas Edgar arrives home from a collecting expedition in the Amazon. His young wife Sophie is unprepared for his emaciated state and, even worse, his inability - or unwillingness - to speak. Sophie's genteel and demure life in Edwardian England contrasts starkly with the decadence of Brazil's rubber boom, as we are taken back to Thomas's arrival in the Amazon and his search for a mythical butterfly. Up the river, via the opulent city of Manaus - where the inhabitants feed their horses champagne and aspire to all things European - Thomas's extraordinary, and increasingly obsessed, journey carries him through the exotic and the erotic to some terrible truths. Back home, unable to break through Thomas's silence, Sophie is forced to take increasingly drastic measures to discover what has happened. But as she scavenges what she can from Thomas's diaries and boxes of exquisite butterflies, she learns as much about herself as about her husband.
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 1869796411
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
An international bestseller this novel follows an unforgettable journey from the demure gentility of turn-of-the-twentieth-century England into the heart of darkness. In 1904, the young lepidopterist Thomas Edgar arrives home from a collecting expedition in the Amazon. His young wife Sophie is unprepared for his emaciated state and, even worse, his inability - or unwillingness - to speak. Sophie's genteel and demure life in Edwardian England contrasts starkly with the decadence of Brazil's rubber boom, as we are taken back to Thomas's arrival in the Amazon and his search for a mythical butterfly. Up the river, via the opulent city of Manaus - where the inhabitants feed their horses champagne and aspire to all things European - Thomas's extraordinary, and increasingly obsessed, journey carries him through the exotic and the erotic to some terrible truths. Back home, unable to break through Thomas's silence, Sophie is forced to take increasingly drastic measures to discover what has happened. But as she scavenges what she can from Thomas's diaries and boxes of exquisite butterflies, she learns as much about herself as about her husband.
Dancing with Butterflies
Author: Reyna Grande
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439149607
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
In Dancing with Butterflies, Reyna Grande renders the Mexican immigrant experience in “lyrical and sensual” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) prose through the poignant stories of four women brought together through folklorico dance. Dancing with Butterflies uses the alternating voices of four very different women whose lives interconnect through a common passion for their Mexican heritage and a dance company called Alegría. Yesenia, who founded Alegría with her husband, Eduardo, sabotages her own efforts to remain a vital, vibrant woman when she travels back and forth across the Mexican border for cheap plastic surgery. Elena, grief-stricken by the death of her only child and the end of her marriage, finds herself falling dangerously in love with one of her underage students. Elena's sister, Adriana, wears the wounds of abandonment by a dysfunctional family and becomes unable to discern love from abuse. Soledad, the sweet-tempered illegal immigrant who designs costumes for Alegría, finds herself stuck back in Mexico, where she returns to see her dying grandmother. Reyna Grande has brought these fictional characters so convincingly to life that readers will imagine they know them.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439149607
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
In Dancing with Butterflies, Reyna Grande renders the Mexican immigrant experience in “lyrical and sensual” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) prose through the poignant stories of four women brought together through folklorico dance. Dancing with Butterflies uses the alternating voices of four very different women whose lives interconnect through a common passion for their Mexican heritage and a dance company called Alegría. Yesenia, who founded Alegría with her husband, Eduardo, sabotages her own efforts to remain a vital, vibrant woman when she travels back and forth across the Mexican border for cheap plastic surgery. Elena, grief-stricken by the death of her only child and the end of her marriage, finds herself falling dangerously in love with one of her underage students. Elena's sister, Adriana, wears the wounds of abandonment by a dysfunctional family and becomes unable to discern love from abuse. Soledad, the sweet-tempered illegal immigrant who designs costumes for Alegría, finds herself stuck back in Mexico, where she returns to see her dying grandmother. Reyna Grande has brought these fictional characters so convincingly to life that readers will imagine they know them.
Box of Butterflies
Author: Roma Downey
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501150960
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Roma Downey—best known as the beloved angel on the TV show Touched by an Angel—“has created a beautiful and personal testimony to the presence of God in our lives and our world” (Most Reverend José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles). Ever since she was a little girl, Roma has seen butterflies as a reminder of God’s presence. They have appeared to her in moments when she needed encouragement, reminding her that she is not alone. In this deeply personal book, Roma shares stories from her life, alongside quotes, poems, scripture, and artwork that she prays will uplift you as they have her. Reminiscent of the message of her popular television series, Touched by an Angel, this book’s central theme is that there is a God, He loves you, and that even in your most difficult moments, He is by your side. The subtle butterfly theme reminds us that the wonder of God’s love and kindness is sometimes reflected in the gentle whispers of His creation and that we all have the power to transform from simple caterpillars into exquisite butterflies. This inspirational book invites you to return to its pages again and again, as life brings new challenges, or you find yourself in need of new inspiration. Box of Butterflies “will touch you and move you and strengthen you” (Kathie Lee Gifford).
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501150960
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Roma Downey—best known as the beloved angel on the TV show Touched by an Angel—“has created a beautiful and personal testimony to the presence of God in our lives and our world” (Most Reverend José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles). Ever since she was a little girl, Roma has seen butterflies as a reminder of God’s presence. They have appeared to her in moments when she needed encouragement, reminding her that she is not alone. In this deeply personal book, Roma shares stories from her life, alongside quotes, poems, scripture, and artwork that she prays will uplift you as they have her. Reminiscent of the message of her popular television series, Touched by an Angel, this book’s central theme is that there is a God, He loves you, and that even in your most difficult moments, He is by your side. The subtle butterfly theme reminds us that the wonder of God’s love and kindness is sometimes reflected in the gentle whispers of His creation and that we all have the power to transform from simple caterpillars into exquisite butterflies. This inspirational book invites you to return to its pages again and again, as life brings new challenges, or you find yourself in need of new inspiration. Box of Butterflies “will touch you and move you and strengthen you” (Kathie Lee Gifford).
Butterflies on the First Day of School
Author: Annie Silvestro
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
ISBN: 1454941367
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 31
Book Description
The first day of school is exciting—but it can be scary, too! Meet Rosie, a brand-new student who just happens to have butterflies in her stomach. “Silvestro and Chen take a common figure of speech and transform it, literally, into a lovely expression of a universal experience.” —Kirkus “A cheering first-day story.” —Publishers Weekly Rosie can’t wait to start kindergarten—she’s had her pencils sharpened and her backpack ready for weeks. But suddenly, on the night before the big day, her tummy hurts. Rosie’s mom reassures her that it’s just butterflies in her belly, and she’ll feel better soon. Much to Rosie’s surprise, when she says hello to a new friend on the bus, a butterfly flies out of her mouth! As the day goes on, Rosie frees all her butterflies, and even helps another shy student let go of hers, too.
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
ISBN: 1454941367
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 31
Book Description
The first day of school is exciting—but it can be scary, too! Meet Rosie, a brand-new student who just happens to have butterflies in her stomach. “Silvestro and Chen take a common figure of speech and transform it, literally, into a lovely expression of a universal experience.” —Kirkus “A cheering first-day story.” —Publishers Weekly Rosie can’t wait to start kindergarten—she’s had her pencils sharpened and her backpack ready for weeks. But suddenly, on the night before the big day, her tummy hurts. Rosie’s mom reassures her that it’s just butterflies in her belly, and she’ll feel better soon. Much to Rosie’s surprise, when she says hello to a new friend on the bus, a butterfly flies out of her mouth! As the day goes on, Rosie frees all her butterflies, and even helps another shy student let go of hers, too.
In the Time of the Butterflies
Author: Julia Alvarez
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1616200995
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, internationally bestselling author and literary icon Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies is "beautiful, heartbreaking and alive ... a lyrical work of historical fiction based on the story of the Mirabal sisters, revolutionary heroes who had opposed and fought against Trujillo." (Concepción de León, New York Times) Alvarez’s new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, is coming April 2, 2024. Pre-order now! It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas—the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé--speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez’s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression. "Alvarez helped blaze the trail for Latina authors to break into the literary mainstream, with novels like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents winning praise from critics and gracing best-seller lists across the Americas."—Francisco Cantú, The New York Times Book Review "This Julia Alvarez classic is a must-read for anyone of Latinx descent." —Popsugar.com "A gorgeous and sensitive novel . . . A compelling story of courage, patriotism and familial devotion." —People "Shimmering . . . Valuable and necessary." —Los Angeles Times "A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time.” —St. Petersburg Times "Alvarez does a remarkable job illustrating the ruinous effect the 30-year dictatorship had on the Dominican Republic and the very real human cost it entailed."—Cosmopolitan.com
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1616200995
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, internationally bestselling author and literary icon Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies is "beautiful, heartbreaking and alive ... a lyrical work of historical fiction based on the story of the Mirabal sisters, revolutionary heroes who had opposed and fought against Trujillo." (Concepción de León, New York Times) Alvarez’s new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, is coming April 2, 2024. Pre-order now! It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas—the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé--speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez’s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression. "Alvarez helped blaze the trail for Latina authors to break into the literary mainstream, with novels like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents winning praise from critics and gracing best-seller lists across the Americas."—Francisco Cantú, The New York Times Book Review "This Julia Alvarez classic is a must-read for anyone of Latinx descent." —Popsugar.com "A gorgeous and sensitive novel . . . A compelling story of courage, patriotism and familial devotion." —People "Shimmering . . . Valuable and necessary." —Los Angeles Times "A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time.” —St. Petersburg Times "Alvarez does a remarkable job illustrating the ruinous effect the 30-year dictatorship had on the Dominican Republic and the very real human cost it entailed."—Cosmopolitan.com
The Existential Butterfly
Author: Curtis R. Farmwald
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1412248477
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
This book is the natural culmination of years of interest in writing poetry and years of studying and enjoying nature. The butterfly is a metaphor for many things - change, growth, rebirth, etc. One of the things it symbolizes here is an earlier need to force ideas into the constraints of pattern and rhyme - evolving into thoughts and feelings flowing freely across the page. Also the shedding of the fear and laziness to actually become what I need to be. I'm attempting to blur or even erase the boundaries between the five senses, and between what the senses experience and what the mind and spirit think and feel. I want to portray these things all blended together in a total experience - existence.
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1412248477
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
This book is the natural culmination of years of interest in writing poetry and years of studying and enjoying nature. The butterfly is a metaphor for many things - change, growth, rebirth, etc. One of the things it symbolizes here is an earlier need to force ideas into the constraints of pattern and rhyme - evolving into thoughts and feelings flowing freely across the page. Also the shedding of the fear and laziness to actually become what I need to be. I'm attempting to blur or even erase the boundaries between the five senses, and between what the senses experience and what the mind and spirit think and feel. I want to portray these things all blended together in a total experience - existence.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Author: Jean-Dominique Bauby
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307454835
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
A triumphant memoir by the former editor-in-chief of French Elle that reveals an indomitable spirit and celebrates the liberating power of consciousness. In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young children, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book. By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy, and deep sadness, of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father's voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again he returns to an "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations," keeping in touch with himself and the life around him. Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This book is a lasting testament to his life.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307454835
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
A triumphant memoir by the former editor-in-chief of French Elle that reveals an indomitable spirit and celebrates the liberating power of consciousness. In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young children, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book. By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy, and deep sadness, of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father's voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again he returns to an "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations," keeping in touch with himself and the life around him. Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This book is a lasting testament to his life.