About this item
"Beautifully written. Utterly life-affirming." - Alan RickmanA luminous memoir in the tradition of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and a #1 bestseller upon its initial release in Ireland, a young filmmaker gives us "a story of courage, of heart, of coming back for more, of love and struggle and the power of both" (Joseph O'Connor) . In 2008, Simon Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with ALS, or 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 to ventilate in order to stay alive. In It's Not Yet Dark, the young filmmaker, a husband and father of five small children, draws us deeply into his inner world. Told in simply expressed and beautifully stark prose, it is an astonishing journey into a life that, though brutally compromised, is lived more fully than most, revealing at its core the potent power love has to carry us through the days. 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.
About the Author
Simon Fitzmaurice is an award-winning writer and film director. His book It's Not Yet Dark has been nominated for Bord Gais Book of the Year Award and ranked number two in Liveline's Writer's Book of the Year. His films have screened at film festivals all over the world and won prizes at home and abroad, including Best Short Film at The Cork Film Festival and The Belfast Film Festival (twice) , the Grand Jury Prize at the Opalcine Film Festival, Paris, The Jimmy Stewart Memorial Award at The Heartland Film Festival and Jury Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. His short film The Sound of People was selected to screen at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Simon holds Honours Masters Degrees in both Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama, and Film Theory and Production. His short fiction has been shortlisted for the Hennessy Literary Award and his poetry has appeared in the quarterly publication West 47. Simon has just written and directed his first feature length film, My Name is Emily. He lives in Greystones with his wife Ruth, their five children, Jack, Raife, Arden, Sadie and Hunter and their Bassett Hound, Pappy.
