cover image A Stitch of Time: The Year a Brain Injury Changed My Language and Life

A Stitch of Time: The Year a Brain Injury Changed My Language and Life

Lauren Marks. Simon & Schuster, , $26 ISBN 978-1-4516-9751-3

On a trip to Scotland in 2007, Marks, who was then 27, suffered a brain aneurysm that left her unable comprehend the written word and made it difficult for her to communicate verbally. In this engrossing memoir, she takes readers on a journey of the ever-fascinating mind and her own long road to recovery. Through her journal entries and notes, she describes what it’s like to come back from debilitating brain injury. She explores how we understand language and why it makes up so much of one’s sense of self. The story is broken into four parts, with markers for each month of her first year of recovery. Marks gives an inside account of a brain in the act of healing—including all the ups, downs, and complications—and also supplies useful information for those suffering from aphasia, including a detailed list of books and studies by others. Marks provides a story of hope. Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary. (May)