This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. I first became aware of Henef Koreshi when the 1985 film My Beautiful Laundaret was released.

He was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay about a side of contemporary England that had rarely been explored on screen,

Pakistani immigrants and their children. The film was a lively romantic comedy about gay love, family,

racism, and punk rock. It was directed by Stephen Friars and co-star Daniel Day Lewis as a young man

in a relationship with the son of a Pakistani immigrant. Kureshi has since written other

screenplays and novels, including the Buddha of Suburbia.

His new memoir, called Shattered, begins in 2020, after a fall that injured his spinal cord,

leaving him unable to move his arms or legs.

He describes being unrecognizable to himself, disconnected from his body, totally dependent on others, feeling

helpless and humiliated, dealing with rage, envying other people who could do even basic things

like scratch and itch. While spending too much time on his back staring at the ceiling,

he reflected on earlier periods of his life. He shares those reflections in his book.

He spent a year in hospitals before he was able to return home with round-the-clock caregivers.

He started writing the memoir just days after the accident by dictating to one of his sons.

The book's narrative is occasionally interrupted by asides like,

Excuse me for a moment, I must have an enema now. Koreshi is the son of a British mother

and a father who emigrated from Pakistan in the late 1940s. Han of Koreshi, welcome back to

Fresh Air. We first spoke in 1990 on Fresh Air, and you've been on two times since then,

so welcome back. How are you now? Like, how much movement do you have now?

I'm thrashing my arm about a bit now as I speak to you, but I can't use my fingers. I can't grip. I couldn't pick up a pen or

anything like that. I can move my shoulder. I can move my legs a bit. Obviously, I'm in a wheelchair.

I can't stand up, but I can't actually use my hands. So I'm around the clock dependent, as you put it earlier. But I'm stronger than I was,

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