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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Andrew Solomon - Far From the Tree

Book of the Week: Andrew Solomon - Far From the Tree: Episode 1

Factual: Families & Relationships

Far From the Tree

Episode 1

Andrew Solomon - Far From the Tree

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Andrew Solomon - Far From the Tree, Episode 1

Growing up gay and dyslexic led Andrew Solomon to reflect on the 'outsider' child.

4 Extra Debut. The challenges of parenting exceptional children. Growing up gay and dyslexic led Andrew to reflect on being born an 'outsider'. Read by Kerry Shale.

The time-worn adage says that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, meaning that a child resembles his or her parents. The children described in this book are apples that have fallen elsewhere - some a couple of orchards away, some on the other side of the world. Yet myriad families learn to tolerate, accept and finally celebrate children who are not what they originally had in mind.

Andrew Solomon introduces us to families coping with deafness, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, and disability - as well as families who have children who are prodigies, who are gay, or who become criminals. 

While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, Solomon documents the repeated triumphs of human love and compassion to show that the shared experience of difference is what unites us.

Episode 1 (of 5):
Growing up gay and also struggling with dyslexia led Andrew Solomon to reflect on those situations where a child arrives in a family and is immediately an 'outsider'. 'Parenthood,' he writes, 'abruptly catapults us into a permanent relationship with a stranger'.

Read by Kerry Shale
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Stories of families who learn to deal with their exceptional children, by Andrew Solomon

An investigation into the challenges of parenthood tells the stories of families who learn to deal with their exceptional children and find profound meaning in doing so.

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Andrew Solomon - Far From the Tree

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