“Beautifully written. Utterly life-affirming.” Alan Rickman, Emmy and Tony Award–winning actor
Description
In 2008, Simon Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was given four years to live. In 2010, in a state of lung-function collapse, Simon knew with crystal clarity that now was not his time to die. Against all prevailing medical opinion, he chose life. Despite the loss of almost all motor function, thanks to miraculous technology he has continued to work, help raise his children, and write this astonishing, life-affirming memoir.
Fitzmaurice, a husband and father of five, draws us deeply into his inner world. Told in simply expressed and beautifully stark prose, it is a journey into a life that, though brutally compromised, is lived more fully than most, revealing the potent power of love, of art, and of the human spirit.
Written using an eye-gaze computer, It’s Not Yet Dark is an unforgettable book about relationships and family, about what connects and separates us as people, and, ultimately, about what it means to be alive.
Praise
“Beautifully written. Utterly life-affirming.” Alan Rickman, Emmy and Tony Award–winning actor
“Survival stories are not about surviving, they’re inherently about what makes a survivor push through. A desire to remain in the light of all creation, even as a darkening is taking place. A darkening which happens to us all.” Colin Farrell, award-winning actor
“The word ‘inspirational’ is over-used, but if ever a book deserved this epithet, this is it.” Sunday Independent (London)
“Sparsely and beautifully written…the human spirit and will to live shines out of these pages.” Irish Independent
“Part memoir, part stark document of the way [Simon] and his family have dealt with motor-neuron disease, and part fierce celebration of being alive, It’s Not Yet Dark is powerful, gripping and compelling.” Irish Times
Details
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Release Day | Jul 31, 2017 |
| Release Date | August 1, 2017 |
| Release Date Machine | 1501545600 |
| Imprint | Blackstone Publishing |
| Provider | Blackstone Publishing |
| Categories | Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction - Adult, Nonfiction - All |
Author Bio
Simon Fitzmaurice is an award-winning writer and film director. His short film The Sound of People was selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival. He holds honors master’s degrees in both Anglo-Irish literature and drama and film theory and production, as well as an honorary doctorate of philosophy. His multi-award-winning first feature film, My Name Is Emily, which he wrote and directed using eye-gaze technology, was released in the United States in February 2017. A documentary about Fitzmaurice, also titled It’s Not Yet Dark, premiered at Sundance in January 2017.
Narrator Bio
Alan Smyth, an audiobook narrator, has worked as a professional actor for more than fifteen years. He has toured extensively in Ireland and the United States and has worked with such companies as the BBC, Paramount Pictures, and Showtime Productions.
Overview
In 2008, Simon Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was given four years to live. In 2010, in a state of lung-function collapse, Simon knew with crystal clarity that now was not his time to die. Against all prevailing medical opinion, he chose life. Despite the loss of almost all motor function, thanks to miraculous technology he has continued to work, help raise his children, and write this astonishing, life-affirming memoir.
Fitzmaurice, a husband and father of five, draws us deeply into his inner world. Told in simply expressed and beautifully stark prose, it is a journey into a life that, though brutally compromised, is lived more fully than most, revealing the potent power of love, of art, and of the human spirit.
Written using an eye-gaze computer, It’s Not Yet Dark is an unforgettable book about relationships and family, about what connects and separates us as people, and, ultimately, about what it means to be alive.
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