Finding the Words Again: Aphasia Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe aphasia, the loss of words and language that came for most of these writers after a stroke. Writers recall how it arrived: at a Sunday barbecue mistaken for too many beers, during a gym class at thirty-six, after a heart operation, overnight in Dubai, in ten minutes that seemed to pass. They include a farmer practising six new words a day, a retired librarian, a translator who worked in three languages, a welder writing with his other hand, a bookkeeper who lost her numbers, a chef who could cook but not read the labels, a lawyer learning to talk alongside her baby, and partners, children, a grandchild, a manager and a care assistant, from Leeds and Belfast to Accra, Amman, Kingston and Pune. The book covers clot-dissolving treatment, speech therapy by tablet three hours from the nearest clinic, an insurance limit of twenty visits, an aphasia café, singing, counting and prayer that returned before sentences, gestures, and a card carried in a wallet. Daily life means the telephone, ordering dinner, dating, driving again and going back to work. The harder side is here too: sadness nobody warned of, a year of anger, eleven weeks indoors, a second stroke, and words that came back only in part. Several describe still improving years later.

Who it's for

For people living with aphasia after a stroke, and for the partners, children, friends, colleagues and carers who want to learn how to talk, wait and listen alongside them.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 233 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.