Boy Alone: A Brother’s Memoir of Growing up with an Autistic Sibling

＂Boy Alone unlocks the heart and lets the emotions pour out: grief, despair, anger, love, devotion and wonder. Whether you are a parent or a sibling of someone with autism or just looking in from the outside through this rarely opened window into the complex life of a family coping with autism, you will never forget this book.＂ --Portia Iversen, Co-Founder of Cure Autism Now Foundation and author of Strange Son

A Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year

In this literary tour de force, Karl Taro Greenfield, acclaimed journalist and author of China Syndrome, tells the story of his life growing up with his brother, chronicling the hopes, dreams, and realities of life with an autistic sibling.

Karl Taro Greenfeld knew from an early age that his little brother, Noah, was not like other children. He was unable to communicate verbally or tie his shoes, and despite his angelic demeanor was prone to violent outbursts. No doctor, social worker, or specialist could pinpoint what was wrong with Noah beyond a general diagnosis: autism. The boys’ parents dedicated their lives to caring for their younger son--a challenging, often painful experience that their father detailed in a bestselling trilogy of books.

Boy Alone is Karl Taro Greenfeld’s unforgettable memoir of growing up in Noah’s shadow, revealing the complex mix of rage, confusion, and love that defined the author’s childhood--a beautiful, haunting, and wholly original exploration of what it means to be a family, a brother, a person.

This unflinching account goes beyond the diagnosis, exploring the fault lines of family, loyalty, and what it truly means to be a brother.

• The Sibling Experience: A raw, first-person account of growing up in the shadow of a beloved but profoundly disabled brother, navigating a landscape of jealousy, fierce loyalty, and guilt.
• A Family Redefined by Autism: Witness a family’s relentless, decades-long search for answers and therapies, from the controversial theories of Bruno Bettelheim to the pioneering work of Ivar Lovaas.
• A Brother’s Confession: Greenfeld holds nothing back, exploring the complicated, often contradictory emotions that define his relationship with Noah--from rage and resentment to a profound, unbreakable love.
• A Story Within a Story: Discover the unique dynamic of a family of writers, where the author’s father chronicled Noah’s childhood in a bestselling trilogy, creating a public narrative that Karl now reclaims with his own powerful voice.