Code: 58676 A

Iranian publisher offers “The Reason I Jump”

Iranian publisher offers “The Reason I Jump”

TEHRAN –(Iranart)- Tehran-based publisher Cheshmeh has recently published a Persian translation of Japanese author Naoki Higashida’s biography “The Reason I Jump: One Boy’s Voice from the Silence of Autism”.

Higashida was only thirteen when he wrote “The Reason I Jump”, a revelatory account of autism from the inside by a nonverbal Japanese child, which became an international success.

Reyhaneh Zahiri is the translator of the book, whose English translation by K.A. Yoshida and David Mitchell was published by Random House in 2013.  

It is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives and responds in ways that few of us can imagine. 

Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one, at last, have a way to break through to the curious, subtle and complex life within.

Using an alphabet grid to painstakingly construct words, sentences and thoughts that he is unable to speak out loud, Naoki answers even the most delicate questions that people want to know. 

Questions such as: “Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly?” “Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks?” “Why don’t you make eye contact when you’re talking?” and “What’s the reason you jump?” 

Naoki’s answer: “When I’m jumping, it’s as if my feelings are going upward to the sky.” 

With disarming honesty and a generous heart, Naoki shares his unique point of view on not only autism but life itself. 

His insights — into the mystery of words, the wonders of laughter and the elusiveness of memory — are so startling, so strange, and so powerful that you will never look at the world the same way again.

Higashida was born in 1992 and diagnosed with autism when he was five. Reviews have been mixed, both celebrating the accomplishment of a mentally and emotionally challenged young author and expressing discomfort with the involvement of his communications facilitator (his mother) and English language translators, Yoshida and her husband Mitchell.

source: Tehran Times

The Reason I Jump Naoki Higashida
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