Tell Me the Planets
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  • Published: 19 February 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241976838
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $28.00

Tell Me the Planets

Stories of Brain Injury and What It Means to Survive

Formats & editions
Paperback
19 Feb 2019
EBook
3 May 2018
Audiobook
3 May 2018
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Fascinating stories from the front-line of brain injury, as well as an account of an extraordinary friendship

In Tell Me the Planets, Ben Platts-Mills shares stories about his remarkable work with survivors of brain injury, offering a rare glimpse into the world as seen through their eyes. We meet charismatic Danny, whose criminal past has left him paralysed down one side, but who now helps others worse off than himself; Sid, whose memory for the present lasts only moments; and Liah, who is caught in a battle with the care system threatening to make her homeless. But above all this is the story of the extraordinary friendship between Ben and Matthew, who suffered neurological damage during an operation to remove a cerebral cyst. It is a journey that takes them to the frontiers of science and to the limits of human resilience: when they discover that the cyst is growing again, Matthew is left with an impossible decision to make.
  • Published: 19 February 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241976838
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $28.00
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Praise for Tell Me the Planets

Platts-Mills writes with truth and eloquence about his relationships with brain injury survivors, and gives us insight into what it is that makes us human, and how those relationships can help us heal

Julia Samuel

At turns heartbreaking and uplifting, this is not just a brilliant book about the survivors of brain injury, but also a vivid and unforgettable portrait of modern Britain by an extraordinarily-gifted story-teller. Ben Platts-Mills tells the stories of child-refugee Liah, ex-gangster Danny and computer geek Matthew - in hourly peril of having their sense of self annulled - with great vividness and imagination

Robert Newman, author of Neuropolis

An absorbing and moving account of what it is like to live with brain injury. Ben Platts-Mills writes vividly

Penelope Lively

Remarkable. Heartbreaking and uplifting

Foyles Newsletter

In Ben Platts-Mills's extraordinary book, the characters of people damaged by violence, stroke or accident of birth outshine the medical details. He tells [their stories] wonderfully

nature.com

Meticulous, thoughtful ... lyrical phrases are striking in their precision

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