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Phil Williams: 13/07/2017

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13/07/2017

BBC Radio 5 Live - Phil Williams, 13/07/2017

Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell on learning to understand his son's autism.

Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell on the book which transformed his understanding of his son's autism - a memoir written by Naoki Higashida, a Japanese teenager.

David Mitchell - the best selling author of books like Cloud Atlas - has an autistic son and like many parents he was struggling to deal with the sometimes difficult behaviour that goes with the condition.

That's when he came across a remarkable memoir written by Naoki Higashida - a Japanese teenager who had also been diagnosed with with severe autism.  Like David's son, Naoki is non verbal - but he had found a way to write by pointing to words on a grid or keyboard which were then transcribed by a helper.

Mitchell was so moved by the book he set about translating what became a number one international best seller - The Reason I Jump.

Naoki is now 22 and his latest book covers his life from his mid teens to early twenties and David has once again translated his work to offer readers a glimpse at autism from the inside.

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13/07/2017

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