麻豆社

By Naoki Higashida
Translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida, and introduced by David Mitchell
Read by Kasper Hilton-Hille

Thirteen year old Naoki Higashida invites us into his world, an intimate astonishing insight into the perceptions and feelings of a child with autism. He explains his simple delight in spinning objects, and his own pleasure in movement, which is deeply calming for him and stems from a feeling that in stillness his very soul might detach itself from his body.

Naoki's autism is so severe that he finds it difficult to hold a conversation, and he wrote the book painstakingly, using an 'Alphabet Grid', Japanese character by character. His writing reveals a young teenager sensitive to the feelings and perceptions of others but often isolated from those he loves.

When the author David Mitchell, whose own son has autism, discovered this extraordinary book, he felt that for the first time his own son was talking to him about what was going on inside his head, through the words of the young author.

Abridged and Produced by Allegra McIlroy.