Introduction Copyright 2015 Henry Marsh, Afterword Copyright 2015 Robert McCrum

Robert McCrum was forty-two when he suffered a massive stroke which left one side of his body paralysed, his speech drastically impaired and his sense of himself radically altered. My Year Off traces McCrum’s gruelling recovery as he regains sensation and begins to come to terms, with the help of his family, with what can and cannot be recovered after a grave injury. It is a moving remonstrance against human frailty, and a vital and insightful exploration of hope, despair, determination and, ultimately, of love.