Between Two Eternities: Saul's Story - Hardcover

Rosemary Kay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0747274894 ISBN 13: 9780747274896

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

"As mesmerising as The Life of Pi, and as haunting as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." The Guardian. This extraordinary story of a miniature hero is one of the most original and unforgettable books you will ever read. “I love climbing mountains. Mountains go on and on and things keep getting better and better. There's always something to keep climbing for. Unless you fall. Falling off a mountain is worse than falling off a flat field, which is really only tripping up, isn't it? Some people would rather live on a flat field and only ever trip up. And that's alright because if you're afraid of falling, maybe you shouldn't climb mountains. But fields are boring and mountains are exciting. I'm going to be a mountaineer when I grow up.” In an amazing leap of imagination, Rosemary Kay places us inside the mind of her new-born baby, Saul. With great humour, compassion and unblinking honesty, Saul demonstrates the triumph of the human spirit over appalling adversity, all the more extraordinary because that spirit is housed in the tiniest, weakest of bodies. For Saul is a premature baby, born four months early. He fits into the palm of the midwife’s hand. But he arrives full of wonder, and with a fierce will to survive. His story is one of optimism, hope and courage, of supreme trust and tragic betrayal. Finely poised in the no-man’s-land between life and death, every day of his life is packed with human drama and superhuman endeavour, played out in the bustling, bright, hyper-real world of the Intensive Care Unit. Trying to make sense of it all, he develops an otherworldly wisdom and insight, finding escape through imagination, and thus exploring the nature of love, of trust and forgiveness. With his endearing personality, he bravely battles all the expected complications of prematurity and several rare conditions as well. And throughout it all we are graced with his witty observations, allowed to witness the warmth of his developing relationships, and taken along on his mischievous, imaginative journeys. His story ranges from sorrow and disaster, to redemption and peace. Saul's story is now a film, This Little Life, winning many awards, including BAFTAs, RTA Awards, and a Prix Europa. “Who wants dreary? Not me. Dreary makes me frightened. I mustn't be frightened. Dreary made my chest go tight and when my chest went tight: pling pling pling! All my chimes start and important numbers flash red.....She strokes my chest. I'm a good boy. The numbers start to climb back up. "That's better." She takes a breath herself. She can breathe deep, it doesn't hurt and her shoulders droop. One day I'll breathe as deep as that, as easy, as smooth, as painless as that. "The most amazing celebration of life you will ever read." The Times.

About this title

Review

Rosemary Kay's unclassifiable book--equal parts novel, biography, and autobiography--is an imaginative first-person memoir of a premature baby's experiences in the neonatal intensive care unit of an English hospital. Saul, the author's son, was born after only 23 weeks' gestation, weighing just one pound, four ounces. Instead of being bundled into his loving mother's arms after delivery, he was consigned to a plastic incubator, with a ventilation tube running down his throat, heart monitors taped to his chest, and liquid nourishment dripping through an umbilical line. His chief experience of touch came every four hours, when blood had to be drawn, or when his tube was suctioned clean. Considering the events of his short life, Saul conceives of a new vocabulary to try to differentiate parts of the world that blur together for him: "This Living," for example, as distinct from life in the womb, or the place where he plays and talks with Grandaddy, long dead. Nurses are given names like "Clean Flowers" or "Nasty." The renaming helps establish that everything is new for the baby, although his use of language is otherwise advanced. After a medical emergency, when it was feared he might die, Saul describes his sense of being accompanied on his journey--and not only by "them," his parents.

We are rushing with the wind and playing in everyone's rememberings. But, Grandaddy, I say to him, if we can go wherever we want, I know where I want to go. I want to be with them.

So Grandaddy guides me. Down, down. Closer and closer. Till we are floating in the smell of terror, leading us to the place where they have gone.

Anyone with children--perhaps anyone at all--will find this wrenching, although it is also an adventure story and a tale of courage. In the afterword, Kay explains that while her grief and regret remain, she still feels lucky to have known her son: "Saul taught me about death; he gave me an understanding that is intangible, inexplicable, a spiritual awareness." --Regina Marler

From the Publisher

A fictional memoir based on the author's own experiences with her son, the novel offers a baby's eye view of life and the struggle for it in a British neonatal intensive care unit." Publishers Weekly

Edition details

• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0747274894
• ISBN 13: 9780747274896
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 288