A tour de force of both self-analysis and external description, this is a heartbreaking autobiographical account of the author's recovery from a bicycling accident that left him partially paralysed at the age of twenty. Finished as Welch was dying thirteen years later from complications arising from the accident, this account of a young man's struggle with debilitating illness has sad and unforeseen parallels to contemporary life. Welch's best-loved and most popular book is perhaps his masterpiece and contains his most accomplished writing.