Mozart and the Whale: They Don't Fit in - Except Together. An Asperger's True Love Story. - Softcover

In the spirit of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" comes an extraordinary - and true - love story of two people with Asperger's syndrome. Rivetingly written through their own eyes, this astonishing and quirky memoir fully captures Jerry and Mary's highly unconventional lives and how they found, lost and found each other again. Jerry and Mary knew they were different: all their lives they struggled to fit into a world that couldn't accept their eccentricities with their extraordinary talents, little knowing that they both had Asperger's. One amazing day, their paths crossed and it was love at first sight. But, they didn't bank on the media getting hold of their story - or on Stephen Spielberg and Robin Williams knocking on their door for film rights to their lives. The media frenzy blew their relationship apart and once again they found themselves alone, alienated and searching for reasons to live. A heart-warming blend of tragedy, romance and hilarious quirkiness, this is an extraordinary true story of two people who refused to give up on themselves - and on each other. It was only when Jerry went to the cinema to see Rainman that he understood why he was different: Dustin Hoffman's autistic character was asked to multiply 4,343 by 1,234 and Jerry shouted out the answer first. Everybody in the cinema turned round and stared. "That's when I realized, 'Uh-oh.'" Abandoned by her ultra-conservative parents, Mary became a musical genius: she could pick up any instrument and play it perfectly and would compose three or four different symphonies at the same time - forwards or backwards. A mathematical genius, Jerry made sense of the world in numbers. He used to interpret car registration plates to impress his dates - with limited success.

Jerry Newport is a leading figure in the Asperger's community and travels extensively to speak at the many support networks he has set up over the years, including Great Britain. He lives with his wife Mary in Arizona where they have set up a ranch for autistic children to be able to commune with animals. Writer Johnny Dodd is a journalist who worked on People magazine for over a decade.