“One of the best books on autism ever written . . . If you want to know what autism is like, close-up--and how autism can provide insights about your consciousness--then read this book.”

— Uta Frith PhD author of Autism: Explaining the Enigma on The Only Boy In the World

The Only Boy In the World

ISBN: 9781569242919


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The Only Boy In the World


by Michael Blastland


The Only Boy in the World is a memoir, an investigation into what makes us human, a study of aberration, and a love story. It’s about all the odd ways journalist Michael Blastland’s autistic son, Joe, has of seeing the world and understanding others, and what that tells the rest of us about how we also tick. Through the strange stories of Joe’s scrapes and confusions, he makes luminous the routine skills by which the rest of us mostly avoid the disasters that befall him. The book strives to this understanding by combining Technicolor scenes from Joe’s bizarre life, from the long catalog of his social accidents, with scientific and psychological understanding of how we normally relate to other people. Illuminating the emotional core of the book are the ways that Joe and his father relate through all the turbulence to one other.