A Second Wind
The True Story that Inspired the Motion Picture The Intouchables

The true story that inspired the hit French film The Untouchables: an inspiring memoir about a paraplegic French businessman and his unlikely North African caregiver.As the descendent of two prominent French families and director of legendary Pommery Champagnes, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo was not generally someone in the habit of asking for help. Then, in 1993, right on the heels of his beloved wife’s diagnosis of a terminal illness, an accident left him a quadriplegic. He was forty-two years old and unable to do anything—even feed himself—without help.     Passing his days hidden behind the high walls of his Paris townhouse, Philippe found himself the modern equivalent of an “untouchable”—his total paralysis rendered him unable to reach out to others; in fact, it seemed to cause others to be afraid to touch him or even acknowledge him. For the first time, he learned what it felt like to be excluded. The only person who seemed not to be bothered by Philippe’s condition was someone who had been marginalized his entire life—Abdel, the unemployed, uninhibited immigrant from the outskirts of society who would become Philippe’s caretaker.      A Second Wind is the inspiring true story of two men who refused to ask for help, and then wound up helping each other. The hugely popular French film based on the book is scheduled for release in the United States in Summer 2012 by the Weinstein Company.