Stuart Neilson

GalleryASD fiction Higashida, Naoki - The Reason I Jump

Higashida, Naoki - "I'm Right Here" (a short story in "The Reason I Jump")
This short story from the book "The Reason I Jump" is one of a tiny number of fictional works about autism written by people with autism. Naoki Higashida was 13 when he wrote the book, expressing an inner voice that he could not express in spoken words. Naoki Higashida's introduction states that "I wrote this story in the hope that it will help you to understand how painful it is when you can’t express yourself to the people you love. If this story connects with your heart in some way, then I believe you’ll be able to connect back to the hearts of people with autism too." The short story expresses the immense gulf between non-verbal and verbal people, and the expectation that non-verbal people will cross almost all of the distance to form relationships in conformity with 'normal' people.
Post Gazette review
A message from Naoki Higashida at wretchesandjabberers.org