On December 8, 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, a journalist and father of two children, suffered a stroke which plunged him into a deep coma. When he regained conciousness, all his motor body functions had deteriorated. He’d been struck by what is known in the medical profession as “locked-in syndrome:” he could no longer move, speak nor even breathe without medical assistance. The only part of his inert body capable of moving was his left eye. This eye became his link with the world, with others, with life. He’d blink once to say “yes,” twice to say “no.” With his single eye, he’d focus visitors’ attention on letters of the alphabet dictated to him and form words, sentences, entire pages. With his eye, he wrote this book The Bell Jar and the Butterfly, for which, each morning during long weeks, he’d memorized sentences before dictating them.