This elegantly written book offers an unexpected & unprecedented account of blindness & sight. Legally blind since the age of eleven, Georgina Kleege draws on her experiences to offer a detailed testimony of visual impairment - both her own view of the world & the world's view of the blind. "I hope to turn the reader's gaze outward, to say not only 'Here's what I see' but also 'Here's what you see,' to show both what's unique & what's universal," Kleege writes. Kleege describes the negative social status of the blind, analyzes stereotypes of the blind that have been perpetuated by movies, & discusses how blindness has been portrayed in literature. She vividly conveys the visual experience of someone with severely impaired sight & explains what she can see & what she cannot (& how her inability to achieve eye contact - in a society that prizes that form of connection - has affected her). Finally she tells of the various ways she reads, & the freedom she felt when she stopped concealing her blindness & acquired skills, such as reading braille, as part of a new, blind identity. Without sentimentality or cliches, Kleege offers us the opportunity to imagine life without sight.