This is the story told by the father of a severely autistic son. Jonah is about 9 or 10 years old and does not speak, dress or bathe himself and still wears diapers. He lives in England where a case must be made to have him placed in a special live-in school for autistic children. His father, Ben, is guilt ridden over his conflicting feelings over his son. His mother, Emma, is leaving them to create a single family household that she claims will increase their chances of a placement. Jonah and Ben go to live with Ben's father. He is grandfather stoic and gruff with his son, but shares stories of his youth with Jonah as he struggles with his own illness.
These are all hurting people with no end in site for the pain. The intimate, inside look at life with an autistic child is heartbreaking and horrifying. The toll on Ben and Emma's marriage, the relationship between fathers and sons are laid out in stark, biting conversations between people trying to figure out how to live with their reality.
The author in real life is the father of an autistic child. I initially was irritated and put off by the self-pity of the father who drinks himself into stupors. I finished the book with a deeper empathy for people struggling to live life in impossible situations with no end in sight.
Published: 2016 Read: December 2017 Genre: Fictionalized biography
