Product Description

Marti Leimbach’s first novel, Dying Young, was called “a masterpiece of details that always ring true, with the sad, funny and fascinating unpredictability of real life.” With the same talent and perception, Leimbach’s new novel takes the reader to London, to the home of the Marshes: Stephen Marsh, a true Brit; Melanie, a transplanted American; and their two children, four-year-old Emily and Daniel, just three. When it is conveyed that Daniel is autistic, the orderly life of the Marsh family is shattered.

Melanie is determined to fight to teach Daniel to speak, play and become as “normal” as possible. Her enchanting disposition has already helped her weather other of life’s storms, but Daniel’s autism may just push her over the brink, destroying her resolute optimism and bringing her unsteady marriage to an inglorious end. The situation is not helped by Stephen’s far-from-supportive parents, who proudly display the family tree with Melanie’s name barely penciled in, and who remain disconcertingly attached to Stephen’s ex-fiancée, a woman apparently intent on restaking her claim on Stephen. Melanie does have one strong ally in Andy, a talented and off-the-wall play therapist who specializes in teaching autistic children. Andy proves that Daniel is far more capable than anyone imagined, and Melanie finds herself drawn to him even as she staggers toward resolving her marriage.

Daniel Isn’t Talking is a moving, deeply absorbing story of a family in crisis. What sets it apart from most fiction about difficult subjects is the author’s ability to write about a sad and frightening situation with a seamless blend of warmth, compassion and humor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #429183 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-04
• Released on: 2006-04-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Leimbach (Dying Young) notes on the back of the galley that she has modeled her title character on her own autistic son; the result is moving, frequently funny and never mawkish. The novel is narrated by Melanie Marsh, an American woman living in England who seems to have it all: Stephen, a rich if somewhat starchy husband; Emily, a vivacious daughter; and an adorable son named Daniel. But after a normal infancy, Daniel is beginning to behave strangely—throwing tantrums, walking on his toes, still seeking his mother's breast and refusing to talk. As Melanie unravels, Stephen remains in denial, until the dreaded diagnosis of autism is delivered. The marriage falls apart, but Melanie does not. She embarks on a frustrating, heroic mission to get the best treatment for her son, eventually entrusting his care to Andy O'Connor, a behaviorist with a dubious reputation. But his unorthodox methods get results, and soon, a bit too predictably, a romance blossoms between Andy and Melanie. While the novel lacks the literary ambition of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Leimbach does succeed in making us care about Daniel and his progress. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
Melanie Marsh is a woman possessed. Jittery, unfocused and perpetually unsettled, she barely eats, hardly sleeps and begs her husband to come home from work at all hours of the day. Utterly devoted to her two young children, she lives with a nagging anxiety so severe that even her psychiatrist is at a loss. "It is as though I've eaten a vat of speed," she says. "My mind races along trailing incoherencies and half-finished thoughts. There's a continual restlessness in all four of my limbs." What could possibly be so wrong?

At the start of Marti Leimbach's Daniel Isn't Talking, it's easy to sympathize with Melanie's husband, Stephen, who is baffled by his wife's agitation. Arriving home one day when his 2-year-old son is in the midst of a tantrum, he embraces Emily, his bubbly 4-year-old, and observes his ragged wife on the floor with Daniel. "Young children cry," he says, in a weary attempt to reassure her. "Isn't that what you always tell me?" Then he turns to the pile of mail and starts opening bills. Melanie, meanwhile, tries to comfort her screaming child, who wrenches from her embrace, refusing her touch. "This is not what kids do," Melanie protests silently. "Daniel is pushing his head against my calf, and now dragging his forehead along the floor."

Stephen wants their lives to be normal. And who can blame him? Who among us is eager to accept that all might not be quite right with the small world we have worked so hard to create? But Melanie knows something is wrong long before Daniel is diagnosed as autistic. She is consumed with helping her child. She makes appointment after appointment with specialists. She reads everything about autism that she can find. Stephen, meanwhile, goes off to work each day, his tie perfectly knotted, his suit wrinkle-free. He spends more time talking on his cell phone than he does with his wife. And the cracks in their marriage, barely visible at first, begin to widen.

Melanie's world is peopled with a hilarious cast of characters: her eccentric and vaguely disapproving British in-laws, who have only penciled her into the family tree; Veena, their brilliant maid, who is obsessive about dust but "terrible at cleaning a house"; Stephen's ex-girlfriend Penelope, an ethnomusicologist who wears "miniskirts and boots up to her thighs . . . sleeps in the nude amid satin sheets, and takes pride in the fact that she can accomplish most sexual acts even underwater." Quirky in some cases to the point of caricature, these characters remind us that autism doesn't exist in a vacuum.

Which is the amazing thing about this book: It manages to be about autism without being just about autism. Instead, it's about tangled relationships, compassionate moments, fear and joy. And along the way, there are moments of grace -- such as the time Daniel throws such a tantrum in the grocery store that shoppers flee from the scene, except for one woman who walks right up to them. Melanie braces for the usual insults about her bad parenting. Instead, the woman smiles kindly. "He's lovely," she says. Melanie can barely comprehend what she's hearing. The woman says he reminds her of her own son when he was small. "There's a beat of silence between us. Her eyes lock with mine. I shake my head back and forth, feeling a pressure in my skull as if a dam is breaking." And suddenly Melanie finds herself weeping in the supermarket, her daughter clinging to her leg, Daniel screaming in the cart, the kind eyes of a stranger gazing at her like a benediction.

The most lovable character in the book is Andy, the therapist, who "looks at Daniel and sees treasure." He makes himself into an airplane and flies Daniel on a little blue chair until he learns to say "mmm" -- and then, finally, "Mama." He teaches Daniel to play with his trains -- and, ultimately, with his sister. Out of the whole endless slew of professionals Melanie marches in to see, Andy is the only one able to help her child, the one who believes in her efforts to save him.

Readers of Daniel Isn't Talking will not journey into the inevitable complexity that envelops the lives of most disabled children who grow into adults. Instead, the author puts us face-to-face with the early stages of coming to grips with raising an autistic child, exposing the inner life of a feisty mother and her frantic rescue attempts. Melanie's breakdown and eventual recovery, powered in part by some important self-discoveries in the book's final pages, give us reason to hope that, in the face of things to come, she and others like her can manage to find their way.

Reviewed by Suki Casanave
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Booklist
Leimbach, the author of Dying Young (1989), tackles a story that hits close to home for her: a young mother grappling with the ramifications of her young son's diagnosis with autism. Melanie Marsh has what seems to be the perfect life: an American woman living abroad in London, she and her husband, Stephen, have two beautiful children. But when a doctor tells her that her three-year-old son, Daniel, who isn't developing normally, is autistic, Melanie resists Stephen's increasingly insistent suggestions that Daniel needs to be placed in a special school for autistic children. Determined that her son speak, Melanie turns to Andy O'Connor, who believes with patience and attention he can get autistic children to speak and play. Melanie believes Daniel will speak, but what she doesn't anticipate is that her marriage is in real danger or that she'll be deeply attracted to the charismatic Andy. Focused and tightly written, Leimbach's novel is an absorbing and hopeful story about a mother's love for and faith in her child. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

good story
I was excited to dive into this book given my interest in autism. The information, the characters, the story were all good, it just seemed to be missing some of the story. Some chapters I would think that maybe I missed something or skipped a page, but that wasn't the case.
I stuck with it and enjoyed the story very much. Melanie is not someone I can relate to, but I found myself feeling her pain.

Excellent read!!!!!
I must say that I adored this book. Many people found the character Melaine to be whishy washy but I found her to be a heroine. I have a child with autism and understand how people, even your own family don't have a clue, and everyone has an opion about something they know nothing about, the stares in the supermarket, the consent comments from strangers are what caused Melanies sometime combative behavior, but she never gave up on her child. I found it interesting after reading reviews of this book that the readers who had someone with autism in there life gave it 5 stars where the others who didn't did not like the book. I guess you have to live it to understand Melanie.

Couldn't put it down
I literally opened up this book and couldn't put it down. I finished it at 3am and loved it. I have a son with autism and this book spoke to me in many ways. I hope they make a movie from the book- it reads like one.

FIVE STARS and Thanks Marti!