One reviewer even compared it to the Rosetta Stone.ĭid you meet Naoki Higashida? What did you make of the controversy over whether he “really” wrote the book? It taught us how to interact with non-verbal autistic kids, but what about the people working with our son? So we translated it and gave it to them, saying: “Please, just read it.” When my agent and editor heard about this, I asked them to print a few thousand as a personal favour, just so people in our position who don’t speak Japanese could get access to it. Why did you become determined to do that? You and your wife translated the book together. It’s got massive emotional welly and never loses its power. It’s ridiculous – in the process of translation, I went through it seven times and cried every time. Then I read Naoki’s book and wanted to say: “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.” The book ends with Naoki’s short story I’m Right Here. I’d believed all the myths, closed all these doors in his future and condemned him to mute prison for a year or two. Without wanting to, I’d basket-cased my son. If I’m honest, my initial reaction was guilt. What emotions did you go through while reading it? You’re doing no harm at all and good things can happen. Let them out of infantilisation prison and allow them full human credentials, which they’re too often denied. No baby talk, don’t adjust your vocabulary, don’t treat an autistic person any differently to a neurotypical person. Assume complete comprehension and act accordingly. What was the most valuable thing the book taught you? And, practically, it helped us understand things like our son’s meltdowns, his sudden inconsolable sobbing or his bursts of joyous, giggly happiness. If autistic people have no emotional intelligence, how could that book have been written? The book doesn’t refute those misconceptions with logic, it is the refutation itself. Was that important for you?īy its very existence, it explodes some of the more pernicious, hurtful, despair-inducing myths. The book challenges stereotypes about autism. It helped us understand his meltdowns, his sudden inconsolable sobbing, his bursts of joyous, giggly happiness However, knowing he’s there on the other side, and wondering whether he’s there or not, are very different things. He was still here but there was this huge communication barrier. It felt like evidence that we hadn’t lost our son. This book arrived in the middle of that and, God, it was a lifesaver.Īt a practical level but also at a more existential level. ![]() Our four-year-old was hitting his head repeatedly on the kitchen floor and we had no clue why. There were startling overlaps between Naoki and our son’s behaviours – plus pretty persuasive explanations for those behaviours. My wife ordered this book from Japan, began reading it at the kitchen table and verbally translating bits for me. We had no idea what was happening in his head or how to help him. My son had been fairly recently diagnosed. What was your experience of reading The Reason I Jump for the first time? Written by Naoki Higashida when he was 13, the book became an international bestseller and has now been turned into an award-winning documentary also featuring Mitchell. Mitchell translated the autism memoir The Reason I Jump from Japanese to English with his wife, Keiko Yoshida. He has also written opera libretti and screenplays. He has been twice shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, for number9dream and Cloud Atlas. He published the first of his nine novels, Ghostwritten, aged 30. A uthor David Mitchell, 52, was born in Southport, grew up in Malvern and now lives near Cork in Ireland.
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