Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

Author Andrew Soloman proposes that being exceptional is at the core of the human condition—that difference is what unites us.

Book Cover: Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent should parents accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Solomon writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, and Solomon documents triumphs of love over prejudice in every chapter.