I read the book as a non-parent who, as a minister, has walked with parents through all manner of difficulty and joy with their children. People will take different things from this book. His interviews created somewhere around 40,000 transcript pages. Solomon himself is gay and married with children, so he has a deeply empathetic heart for those of whom he speaks.

Rather, he wants to understand what parents go through as they try to raise children whose experiences are so different from their own. Yet it quickly becomes clear that Solomon doesn’t seek to pigeonhole those with particular challenges. Some in this list resist categorization with others on the list. For instance, some of the chapter titles give us an idea of the ground Solomon covers: “Deaf,” “Dwarfs,” “Down Syndrome,” “Autism,” “Schizophrenia,” “Disability,” “Prodigies,” “Rape,” “Crime,” “Transgender.” The list itself already invites controversy. But what makes the book extraordinary is that it’s about parents raising children who are fundamentally other than themselves. It is occasionally gut-wrenching and often heartbreaking.Īt its most basic, the book is about parents and children. As one of the longest books I have included on my list, it is a substantial investment in time and emotional energy. This book was chosen as one of the 10 best books for 2012 by the New York Times Book Review. Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity By Andrew Solomonĩ76 pages.

Far from the tree book andrew solomon