Dear Gabriel: Letter to an autistic son

(Paperback)

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A father, trying to understand both his autistic son and himself, has written a painfully honest and heartfelt memoir encompassing their conversations, adventures, struggles, and achievements.

With great love and profound wonder, Halfdan W. Freihow describes his complex relationship with his youngest son, Gabriel, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Though their relationship is sometimes fraught with frustration and misunderstanding, it endures and flourishes with parental pride, and ultimately, unconditional love.

We need a wall at our backs, you and me. Sometimes a stroke from the palm of a hand is enough. At other times we need to erect huge edifices of insight and understanding in order not to fall, plunge into bewilderment, foolishness and fear. At times we are each other's wall, sometimes you are mine, but often I have to be yours alone, for you stumble and fall so easily. And sometimes that scares me, Gabriel, when I have nothing to hold onto myself, nothing to cling to, only wind and light and open sea, and you tumble beyond any comprehension.'

Taking the form of a personal letter, and set against the haunting yet beautiful coastal landscape in which the family lives, Freihow's intimate tale evokes a rich sense of childhood magic. A tender and brutally honest testament to love and the power of family, Dear Gabriel reaches out to all parents as they try to understand and nurture their children, regardless of any obstacles that may stand in their way.

Reviews

A poetic memoir chronicling the love between a father and his autistic son. Freihow writes movingly a vivid, detailed glimpse into [autism] and its effects Freihow's honest description of their relationship, carefully balancing frustration, apprehension and at-times terrifying insecurity with joy and triumph, will prove particularly valuable for families touched by autism, but anyone interested in an intimate, finely-crafted family memoir will find this hard to put down.' - Publishers Weekly STARRED review

Author Bio

Halfdan W. Freihow was born in Mexico and grew up in Madrid, Brussels, and Oslo. A former newspaper, radio, and television journalist and a veteran of the publishing industry, he founded his own publishing house, Font Forlag, in 2005. He lives with his family on an island off the west coast of Norway. Dear Gabriel is his first book and was nominated for the Brage Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Norway. Halfdan has visited Australia as part of the Australia Council sponsored Visiting International Publishers program.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR: Robert Ferguson is a renowned translator of Scandinavian literature. He has also written biographies of Nobel Prize-winning author Knut Hamsun, author Henry Miller, and playwright Henrik Ibsen.