Overview

This is the second volume of Donna Williams' autobiography in which she recounts the story of her struggle with autism. Taking up the thread where ""Nobody Nowhere: The Remarkable Autobiography of an Autistic Girl"" left off, this volume tells of her ongoing battle to overcome the compulsions and obsessions of autism, and her increasingly successful efforts to lead a normal life. The third volume, ""Like Colour to the Blind: Soul Searching and Soul Finding"" continues the story.

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9781853027192

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This book deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster. -The Globe and Mail To be able to do what [Donna Williams] has done, by age 27, and to write about it so poignantly and so articulately is to function on a higher level than most 'normal' folk achieve in a lifetime. -Boston Globe By illuminating her own unique perceptions, she allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before...And oh, can she write. -The New York Times Review of Books The artistically gifted Williams continues to build a bridge between 'my' world and 'the'world. -Publishers Weekly Somebody Somewhere...provides a shining light into the dark mystery of autism. -Detroit Free Press

"""This book deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster."" -The Globe and Mail ""To be able to do what [Donna Williams] has done, by age 27, and to write about it so poignantly and so articulately is to function on a higher level than most 'normal' folk achieve in a lifetime."" -Boston Globe ""By illuminating her own unique perceptions, she allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before...And oh, can she write."" -The New York Times Review of Books ""The artistically gifted Williams continues to build a bridge between 'my' world and 'the'world."" -Publishers Weekly ""Somebody Somewhere...provides a shining light into the dark mystery of autism."" -Detroit Free Press"

""This book deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster."" -The Globe and Mail ""To be able to do what [Donna Williams] has done, by age 27, and to write about it so poignantly and so articulately is to function on a higher level than most 'normal' folk achieve in a lifetime."" -Boston Globe ""By illuminating her own unique perceptions, she allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before...And oh, can she write."" -The New York Times Review of Books ""The artistically gifted Williams continues to build a bridge between 'my' world and 'the'world."" -Publishers Weekly ""Somebody Somewhere...provides a shining light into the dark mystery of autism."" -Detroit Free Press

A compelling continuation of Williams's determined struggle to break free from autism. Perhaps even more than her best-selling Nobody Nowhere (1992), this journal reveals the vision and courage of the author. It picks up where the earlier volume left off, with the completion of the first manuscript and its submission to a publisher. Then, Williams was heading back home from London to Australia, newly aware of a self. But with the bite of the apple of awareness, she was more emotionally vulnerable than ever, unprotected by the ritualistic noises and movements typical of autism and determined not to call on the false selves that helped her function in the world out there. With the help of an educational psychologist and a couple who began as her landlords and ended as loving counselors, and with the help also of colleagues and her students, she fought to move beyond the still detached world in which she lived. She had no comprehension of what other people were feeling, since she could not admit feeling herself. Sensitive to noise, bright lights and supersensitive to touch, she was sometimes overwhelmed by sensation, at which time the meaning dropped out of words. She heard, but did not comprehend, only hoping that a speaker's words would be stored somewhere in her memory so she could retrieve and understand them later. College, teaching, and a worldwide book tour added pressure, but Williams's amazing determination enabled her to break through bouts of the Big Black Nothingness - a void of sensation and experience - to feel anger, pain, and pleasure. Descriptions of feelings at times take on the fuzzy terms of New Agespeak, but discovering as an adult what most of us experience from birth must overwhelm the power of metaphor. A poignant sequel to Williams's ongoing adventure, her experiences here more closely shadowing the emotional struggles of non-autistic adults. (Kirkus Reviews)

This book deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster. -The Globe and Mail To be able to do what [Donna Williams] has done, by age 27, and to write about it so poignantly and so articulately is to function on a higher level than most 'normal' folk achieve in a lifetime. -Boston Globe By illuminating her own unique perceptions, she allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before...And oh, can she write. -The New York Times Review of Books The artistically gifted Williams continues to build a bridge between 'my' world and 'the'world. -Publishers Weekly Somebody Somewhere...provides a shining light into the dark mystery of autism. -Detroit Free Press

Author Information

Donna Williams was born in Australia in 1963 and raised in a working-class inner-city area in Australia. She grew up hearing words such as 'deaf', 'disturbed', 'crazy' and 'spastic', and like many able people with autism born in the 1960s and earlier, she wasn't formally diagnosed with autism until adulthood. As well as writing, composing, painting and sculpting, she lectures and runs workshops on autism all around the world. Donna is the author of four autobiographies - Nobody Nowhere, Somebody Somewhere, Like Colour to the Blind and Everyday Heaven - along with several other books on autism, Autism and Sensing, Autism: An Inside-Out Approach, Exposure Anxiety, The Jumbled Jigsaw (forthcoming) and a collection of her poetry, Not Just Anything: A Collection of Thoughts on Paper. These books are also published by and available from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Her first international best-selling autobiography, Nobody Nowhere, is currently under option by a Hollywood film company. After 13 years in the UK, she now lives back in Australia with her husband Chris.

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