Overview

This is a book about what happens when your child turns out to be very different. That was the fate of Andrea and Maff, a couple from Somerset, UK, whose son was born with multiple severe physical and mental challenges. By the time he was fourteen, Sonny held the royal flush of disabilities: totally paralysed, he could not talk, he could not breathe, and he could not swallow food or liquid. He was dependent on round the clock care to keep him alive. Guy Kennaway, a prize-winning author, met Sonny's mother and heard Sonny's story. Realising that nobody had written a close portrait of a child unable to talk, read or write, Guy and Andrea decided to work together to bring Sonny to the world in a book. With almost no exposure to disability, Guy spent months with the family, alongside researching the subject independently. He was forced to question the many prejudices he unconsciously harboured about disabled people. Unable to deploy any of the ways most people use to communicate, conversation with Sonny seemed impossible. Guy struggled to work out how his parents, siblings and carers were communicating with him. Could he also sense a voice calling from inside Sonny struggling to be heard?

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9781912914869

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Reviews

'A remarkable, unforgettable book. Moving, funny, revelatory.' William Boyd 'Compelling reading, Kennaway explores the interlinked relationships between a young disabled boy, his mother and himself with unflinching honesty, asking searching questions most wouldn't dare with hilarious and heart-wrenching results. As he confronts his own challenges facing the world of disability, he takes the reader along on his journey into the life and interior world of Sonny, a young man with complex needs. The profound questions Kennaway poses and conclusions he reaches cover territory few others are brave enough to explore... Very moving.' Katie Glass 'Sonny is a deeply moving portrait of a family battling Sonny's unimaginable physical and mental challenges with bravery, warmth and acceptance, endless resilience and ingenuity, but above all, love. An emotional rollercoaster that never lets up. Written with Guy Kennaway's trademark eye for detail and sense of humour, the prose never pulls its punches, but it pulls you into a warm embrace too. Like the best books, it is both heartbreaking and heartwarming: raw, tender and searingly honest. Unforgettable.' Veronica Henry 'There are other books in which someone finds their humanity through contact with those living on the brink of existence, but none of them are as funny, as rakingly self-exposing, or as truthful as this one.' Nicola Shulman 'This is such a brave book. Not for the faint hearted, Guy against all odds, enters into this extreme and affecting area of intense social care, and in what has become his leitmotif, regards it with his gimlet eye combining a mixture of empathy, sympathy, bewilderment and dazzling black humour.' Sarah-Jane Lovett 'Guy Kennaway's extraordinary account of his friendship with a family and their son is much more than a story of caring for a disabled child. Guy confronts his own humanity head on. Guy is all too human, and Sonny is often hilarious as Guy struggles to put his own desires first. But even Guy cannot escape the pull of Sonny and his family, leading to a radical rethinking of what it means to be one person among others, sharing space and caring for each other.' Nicholas Blincoe 'This book tells the story of the batteries that keep us going: undying belief, the love of a mother, and the strength of bearing witness to those with a much more difficult existence than our own. Guy's writing is more real and exposing than anything I've ever read on disability. Sonny reminds us that we are not separated by the things that make us different, we are separated when we turn away from each other.' Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell

Author Information

Guy Kennaway was born in London and educated at Edinburgh University. He writes comic fiction and memoir. 'In all my work I like to be tender and funny, finding and writing about people who have been overlooked or dismissed.' He lives in Jamaica and Somerset. Sonny is his tenth book.

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