Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity - Softcover

"A careful, subtle, and surprising book."--Nathan Heller "The New Yorker "

"Deeply moving..."--Lisa Zeidner "The Washington Post "

"It's a book everyone should read and there's no one who wouldn't be a more imaginative and understanding parent--or human being--for having done so."--Julie Myerson "The New York Times Book Review "

"Solomon is a storyteller of great intimacy and ease...He approaches each family's story thoughtfully, respectfully...Bringing together their voices, Solomon creates something of enduring warmth and beauty: a quilt, a choir."--Kate Tuttle "The Boston Globe "

"A brave, beautiful book that will expand your humanity."--Anne Leslie "PEOPLE "

"A book of extraordinary ambition...Part journalist, part psychology researcher, part sympathetic listener, Solomon's true talent is a geographic one: he maps the strange terrain of the human struggle that is parenting."--Brook Wilensky-Lanford "The San Francisco Cronicle "

"Monumental...Solomon has an extraordinary gift for finding his way into the relatively hermetic communities that form around conditions...and gaining the confidence of the natives."--Lev Grossman "TIME "

"A behemoth worth every one of its 976 pages."--Amy Boaz "Publishers Weekly "

"[These] stories are entirely unpredictable and offer us the full range of human experience--not only the horror but also the astonishing beauty--and in the end a Shakespearean sense that we are such stuff as dreams are made of."--Judith Newman "More "

"Far-reaching, original, fascinating--Andrew Solomon's investigation of many of the most intense challenges that parenthood can bring compels us all to reexamine how we understand human difference. Perhaps the greatest gift of this monumental book, full of facts and full of feelings, is that it constantly makes one think, and think again."--Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families

The National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon explores the consequences of extreme personal differences between parents and children, describing his own experiences as a gay child of straight parents while evaluating the circumstances of people affected by physical, developmental or cultural factors that divide families. 150,000 first printing.