The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly
This is an extra ordinary novel/autobiography that will change your life. This book will completely change the way you perceive your life without actually changing anything in your life. This moving story has the potential to teach us how to appreciate all the little things that we take for granted but which are so important to our happiness.
The author was once the editor of the bestselling French magazine Elle until one day he suffered a massive stroke that would change his life forever. Left completely paralysed and only able to move his left eyelid, Jean-Dominique was diagnosed with ‘Locked in Syndrome’. Completely conscious of his surroundings but unable to breath for himself let allow communicate, Jean-Dominique remains trapped in his body which now resembles a diving bell whist his mind is still as free as a butterfly. That is until a French specialist came to the rescue and taught Jean-Dominique to communicate using only his left eyelid, enabling him to painstakingly communicate this tremendous novel.
He describes how his greatest ambition in life, is to breathe for himself and in doing so, make his vocal cords vibrate enough that he might be able to tell his wife and children how much he loves them. By being trapped inside his own body he has been able to transcend all the nonsense that clouds our perception and is able to see what the important things in life really are. Here is a man who has had everything but his thinking mind stripped, away from him and yet he can still find reasons to be thankful, truly heart warming.
Unfortunately, Jean-Dominique died two days after his book was published and will never know just how many hearts his studding novel has touched.