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A Life Impossible  By  cover art

A Life Impossible

By: Steve Gleason, Jeff Duncan
Narrated by: Daniel Cummings
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Publisher's summary

From NFL player Steve Gleason, a powerful, inspiring memoir of love, heartbreak, resilience, family, and remarkable triumph in the face of ALS

In 2011, three years after leaving the NFL, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease that takes away the ability to move, talk, and breathe. Doctors gave him three years to live. He was thirty-three years old. As Steve says, he is now ten years past his expiration date.

His memoir is the chronicle of a remarkable life, one filled with optimism and joy, despite the trauma and pain and despair he has experienced. Writing using eye-tracking technology, Gleason covers his pre-ALS life through the highs and lows of his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints, where he made one of the most memorable plays in Saints history, leading to a victory in the first post-Katrina home game, uplifting the city, making him a hero, and reflected in a nine-foot bronze statue outside the Superdome. Then came his heartbreaking diagnosis. Gleason lost all muscle function, he now uses Stephen Hawking-like technology to communicate, and breathes with the help of a ventilator. This book captures Gleason and his wife Michel’s unmatched resilience as they reinvent their lives, refuse to succumb to despair, and face his disease realistically and existentially.

This unsparing portrait argues that a person's true strength does not reside solely in one’s body but also in the ability to face unfathomable adversity and still be able to love and treasure life.

©2023 Steve Gleason and Jeff Duncan (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Steve Gleason stands for hope, and he stands for infinite possibilities.”–Drew Brees, former New Orleans Saints quarterback

“Steve Gleason has changed the world for a lot of people and literally given a voice to people who didn’t have a voice.”–Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner

"Steve and Michel Gleason have helped ease suffering and restore hope for countless families grappling with ALS. In the face of unrelenting adversity, they’re teaching us all what it means to show up and fight for others."—Bill Gates

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