Christian Donlan

the-unmapped-mind

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The Unmapped Mind

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An amazing and wonderful piece of writing. I could not put it down

A wonderful, moving, powerful and immersive book which will help anyone who has or knows someone with MS. Christian Donlan's takes us inside his mind and his beautiful relationship with his daughter, helping us to look at our own relationships from a fresh perspective.

An unprecedented first-hand account of the effects of brain disease, and what it is like to have your thoughts shift  from under you. Donlan brings us a poetic, compelling and wonderful book. Simply enchanting.

Christian Donlan tells a riveting adventure story as he explores the mysterious paths that connect the body and the brain-and the scary and joyous land of fatherhood. He writes with vivid candour and startling humour about topics that range from the history of neurology to the maddening grey zone between illness and diagnosis. At its heart, this is a book of awe - at how the body works and doesn't, how it grows and fails, and how even the most unwelcome events can sometimes help us break free from old ways of thinking to powerful new ones.

Will Schwalbe, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Your Life Book Club and Books for Living.

This is not a tale of tragedy but one of re-engaging with the world - or realising what's truly important

Beautiful and delicately written with the power to shift your world view

Remarkable and revelatory, this is a dazzling achievement

This is an inspiring tale of a man trying to wrestle an incurable disease into a kind of submission, using intellect and love and logic... [A] marvellous book

A poignant account of living with MS... with a total lack of self pity and much gentle humour, Donlan explores the nooks and crannies of his behaviour.

[An] excellent memoir... he describes the brain in vivid, poetic detail

In this poignant book, Donlan finds in curiosity, writing, and family the surest salves for the terror of chronic illness and mortality

Really beautifully done; reminds me of When Breath Becomes Air. I love it

Perhaps never before has the full palette of the inner ebb and flow of MS been so frankly exposed... Will resonate with other people with MS, and also, so importantly, with their family and friends... an invaluable resource

A Memoir of Neurology, Multiple Sclerosis and Learning How to Live

'Remarkable and revelatory, a dazzling achievement. Quietly electrifying' Sunday Times 
 
On the day his daughter takes her first steps Christian Donlan discovers he has an incurable neurological disease, multiple sclerosis. As his young daughter starts to investigate the world around her, he too finds himself exploring a new landscape - the shifting and bewildering territory of the brain. 
 
Determined to master his new environment, Christian takes us on a fascinating and illuminating journey: through the history of neurology, the joys and anxieties of parenthood, and the ultimate realisation of what, after everything you take for granted has been stripped away from you, is truly important in life. 
 
'This is not a tale of tragedy but one of re-engaging with the world - or realising what's truly important' Stylist 
 
'An amazing and wonderful piece of writing. I could not put it down' Claire Tomalin 
 
'Frank, thought-provoking and uplifting. Will resonate with other people with MS, and also, so importantly, with their family and friends... an invaluable resource' The Times Literary Supplement

"My daughter took her first steps on the day I was diagnosed - a juxtaposition so perfect, so trite, so filled with the tacky artifice of real life that I am generally too embarrassed to tell anybody about it." 
 
Shortly after his daughter Leontine was born, Christian Donlan's world shifted an inch to the left. He started to miss light switches and door handles when reachingfor them. He would injure himself in a hundred stupid ways every day. First playful and then maddening, these strange experiences were the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis, an incurable and degenerative neurological disease. 
 
Ashis young daughter starts to investigate the world around her, he too finds himself exploring a new landscape - the shifting and bewildering territory ofthe brain. He is a tourist in his own body, a stranger in a place that plays bizarre tricks on him, from dizzying double vision to mystifying memory loss. Determined to master his new environment, Christian takes us on a fascinating and illuminating journey: through the history of neurology, the joys and anxieties of parenthood, and the ultimate realisation of what, after everything you take for granted has been stripped away from you, is truly important in life. 
 
An Unmapped Mind is a profoundly personal, uplifting and enriching memoir that will change the way you see your body, your mind, and the world around you.

Christian Donlan is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the New Statesman, Edge magazine and Vice, amongst other places. He is a features editor at Eurogamer.net. He lives in Brighton with his family.

'My daughter took her first steps on the day I was diagnosed - a juxtaposition so perfect, so trite, so filled with the tacky artifice of real life that I am generally too embarrassed to tell anybody about it.' 
 
Shortly after his daughter Leontine was born, Christian Donlan's world shifted an inch to the left. He started to miss light switches and door handles when reaching for them. He would injure himself in a hundred stupid ways every day. First playful and then maddening, these strange experiences were the early symptoms of multiple sclerosis, an incurable and degenerative neurological illness. 
 
Multiple sclerosis is a fiercely destructive disease, yet it is also, as Donlan starts to discover, a perversely creative force. As his young daughter starts to investigate her environment, he too finds himself exploring a strange new landscape - the shifting and bewildering territory of the brain.

The Unmapped Mind

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Christian Donlan

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