Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight

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Matthew Beard

Naoki Higashida

David Mitchell

KA Yoshida

Robin Brooks

Allegra McIlroy

Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight by Naoki Higashida: Episode 2

Episode 2

Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight by Naoki Higashida

BBC Radio 4 - Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight by Naoki Higashida, Episode 2

Teenager Naoki Higashida, who has severe autism, explores his pleasure in words.

Teenager Naoki Higashida, who has severe autism, explores his pleasure in words.  Read by Matt Beard.

With remarkable insight and openness, Naoki Higashida describes the delight of being able to communicate with others, a rare joy for him, since his autism makes it difficult for him to speak easily, or access the words he would like to say. 

Naoki describes spoken language as a blue sea, on which he sits alone, stuck in a tiny boat while others swim and play - and the wonder with which he experiences being able to communicate in writing, as a magic spell which allows him to dive deep beneath the waves of language, and then break the surface, and surprise everyone. 

Most of this book was written around the age of 18, painstakingly, Japanese syllable by syllable, using a low-tech Alphabet Grid. And, from the Alphabet Grid of the insider, he reveals the pain of being non-verbal, and the depth of love and gratitude he feels for his family. 

Most compellingly, he reveals autism as simply a different way of being, and of seeing.

Written by Naoki Higashida.

Translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida

Read by Matthew Beard, and introduced by David Mitchell.

Abridged by Robin Brooks.  

Producer: Allegra McIlroy

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.

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

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Novelist David Mitchell introduces this compelling book by a teenager with severe autism.

David Mitchell, award-winning author of Cloud Atlas, translates and introduces this compelling new book by a Japanese teenager with severe autism. Read by Matthew Beard.

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Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight by Naoki Higashida

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