One

Nigel Pickard

This is the story of Solomon and Kate Roberts and their history as friends, lovers and parents of an autistic child. This book attempts to be many things: a coming-of-age-novel, a love story, but most successfully, it gives a glimpse of what it must be like to care for a child with autism. Very real and believable.

Extract

But the crux is this: that when he is born, Tom may well be autistic, and nobody knows. Kate and Sol cry out how perfect he is. (Sol counts his son's fingers, he counts his son's toes.) While Kate goes to shower, Sol talks to his son, who lies in a plastic tray like a newly baked loaf, but is already, possibly - well, was he or was he not? - not right. Nobody knows, not the doctors nor the midwife nor the health visitor. For nearly two years.

Parallels