Harmony: A Novel

Description

An Amazon Best Book of August 2016: I can’t stop thinking about Carolyn Parkhurst’s novel. It’s beautifully moving, unusual and endlessly provocative. What would you do if your eldest daughter – who is brilliant but has a litany of behavioral issues – was kicked out of all the local schools and deemed “undiagnosable”? In Harmony, Alexandra Hammond will do anything for Tilly. She’ll even pack up her family, put all of her trust in a stranger and child behavior expert and follow him to their new home: a dilapidated camp in New Hampshire. But from the moment they arrive at Camp Harmony, something is awry. Rendered with incredible compassion, insight and suspense, Parkhurst deftly examines one family’s extreme decision to give their children – one on the spectrum, the other neurotypical – the chance to thrive. This book will elicit the gamut of emotions from tears to laughter, which can switch with the turn of page. It’s a perfect book club book, one that will inevitably lead to weighty but life-affirming discussions about Tilly’s nuanced mind, how proud and protective her family is of her, as well and Parkhurst’s outstanding portrayal of autism. --Al Woodworth, The Amazon Book Review