“Far from the Tree” with author Andrew Solomon

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Guest:  Andrew Solomon

In his new book,  Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, writer ANDREW SOLOMON tells the complicated, sometimes heartbreaking and oftentimes compelling stories of parents who not only learn to cope with their children’s differences, but also find fulfillment and joy in doing so. Over 10 years, Solomon interviewed some 300 parents with “exceptional children” — children who for a variety of reasons are emotionally, physically or cognitively different from their parents. For example, he writes about families dealing with the challenges of raising a child who has Down syndrome, is deaf or is a dwarf, struggles with schizophrenia or multiple severe disabilities, is a prodigy or is transgender. While he doesn’t sugarcoat their lives, what Solomon has found is that many families “have ended up grateful for the experiences they would have done anything to avoid.” Andrew Solomon joins us in the studio to talk with Marty in this hour of Radio Times.

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