Product Description

Part memoir, part detective story, this is the powerful story of how two mothers from opposite sides of the world united in an effort to communicate with their severely autistic sons, discovering breakthroughs that challenged prevailing theories about autism.

Tito Mukhopadhyay, an autistic boy from India who spends most of his time flapping his fingers in front of his eyes, has an IQ of 185. He favors the writings of Wordsworth and Ibsen. He loves philosophy, reads People, and worries about conflict in the Middle East. He also writes beautiful poetry.

That Tito can communicate at all is due to his mother, Soma, who single-handedly developed a revolutionary method of teaching him in their one-room apartment in Bangalore, a "classroom" that lacked even running water.

Portia Iversen, an Emmy-winning art director whose life was turned upside down when her own son Dov was diagnosed with autism, heard of Soma's miraculous story in the course of her own desperate search for a cure. Under the auspices of Cure Autism Now, the foundation she started with her husband that is now one of the largest funds for autism research in the world, Portia brought Soma and Tito to America to help researchers understand how Soma accomplished this amazing feat and to determine what can be learned from their success.

Together, Soma and Portia have made remarkable progress in teaching their sons how to break through the walls of autism. And, in the process, they have assisted scientists in making astonishing discoveries about the nature of autism itself.

Strange Son is the extraordinary account of two families who redefined how autism-and autistic people-should be treated, all the while helping to answer some of autism's most baffling questions and prompting new research. Iversen weaves the twin stories of Soma and Tito (and how Soma's methods mystified experts) together with her own story of how she and her family came to understand Dov. The result is a book suffused with uplifting human drama.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #530260 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From AudioFile
Jane Kaczmarek tracks the winding path of Portia Iversen's journey to understand her autistic son, Dov, diagnosed at age 2. Kaczmarek's narration captures Iversen's frustrations as she goes from specialist to specialist, who can tell her little about her son's disability, particularly how to bridge his communication deficits. Kaczmarek voices Iversen's determination as she takes on the task herself, studying microbiology, founding an organization to help autistic children, and building a relationship with the startling, bright autistic Indian poet Tito Mukhopadhyay. Kaczmarek recounts Iversen's successes in identifying and leading research scientists in efforts to understand autism and in finally seeing her own child learn to communicate more effectively. S.H.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Maya Angelou
Love introduced two mothers, one who lived in India and the other in the United States. Their passion to seek health for their children, both afflicted by autism, brought the two women across continents and over oceans. Each stimulated the other with her fervor to find medical breakthroughs. Their story is exciting and uplifting. There is within Strange Son a sadness, but this in truth is a hopeful book. The mothers expect that medical research will find a solution for the cruelty of autism, and in Strange Son they show us that the lushness of family love continues to be the greatest therapy.

Pat Levitt, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center For Research on Human Development
Portia Iversen has used her eyes and ears to pierce the seemingly impenetrable armor of the autism puzzle, and Strange Son reflects the genius of her ability to observe and to listen, filing away in remarkable detail the life experiences of two boys who carry with them the essential clues for understanding the underlying disturbances in brain architecture and function that result in autism.

Customer Reviews

Strange Son
Very good book to read for anyone working with children with Autism. It provides insights to children who are non-verbal and appear to be in "their own world". Helps us to realize that there is a real child in there if we can only find a way to help them express themselves. The determination and perserverance of the mother is impressive.

Incredible courage and tenacity for both mothers and sons
One of the best books I have read in years. I bought additional copies to give as gifts for my friends who work with both gifted and special needs children.

Great True Story
I think this books helps all people, not only parents, to realize what goes on in the mind of a person with aurtism.
I have worked with different types of children, and I was really happy that many of my questions were answered.