One morning, prolific and bestselling crime novelist Howard Engel awoke to discover he had lost the ability to read. He had experienced a stroke that left him with the rare condition known as alexia sine agraphia—he could write, but as soon as he committed his thoughts to the page, he no longer knew what they were. Other effects of the stroke emerged over time, but none were as dramatic and devastating as this one for a man who made his living working with words.

The Man Who Forgot How to Read is the warm, insightful and fascinating story of Engel’s fight to overcome a condition that threatened to end his career. Engel’s remarkable triumph over his affliction—he was finally able to write again and produced another bestselling Benny Cooperman detective novel, Memory Book—will inspire his fans and fascinate anyone interested in the mysteries of the human brain.

HOWARD ENGEL is the creator of the acclaimed Benny Cooperman mystery series, which has been published in more than 15 languages and adapted into two TV movies produced by the CBC and broadcast around the world. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2007, won the Writers' Trust of Canada Matt Cohen award for a life in writing in 2004, and received an honourary doctorate from Brock University. Engel experienced a mild stroke several years ago, leaving him unable to read but still able to write. His experiences of this condition, alexia sine agraphia, have been written about by Oliver Sacks in The New Yorker and in a recent book. Since his diagnosis, Engel continues to write prolifically and has detailed living with his condition through a memoir (The Man Who Forgot How To Read) and in his acclaimed Benny Cooperman series (Memory Book).

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