Reviews: All Books

A moving study of parental love in the face of adversity.

Nobody could read this extraordinary, moving book and not feel enlightened, but above all enlarged by it.

Over a decade and in hundreds of interviews, Solomon looks at how the love of parents for their children and the need of the child for the parent, are tested, bent, pulled and torn by some of the extraordinary ways we have of being human.

This is a remarkable work: moving but never bathetic, challenging in parts but always worth the effort. I’d call it extraordinary — if only Solomon would let me.

The messages, the struggles, and the questions posed are important for all of us to consider – whether our children have fallen far from us or not.

This is a moving account... a book brimming with poignancy.

You don't so much read Far from the Tree as cohabit with it; its stories take up residence in your head and heart, messily unpack themselves and refuse to leave.

That human beings are resilient in the face of extreme circumstances, have a remarkable capacity to adapt, and summon the power of love to surmount daunting conditions are eternal truths made vivid in Solomon’s compendium of stories.

Solomon has given us a masterwork on empathy.

A timeless commentary on the complexity, and the very definition, of disability and on the mystical bond between parents and their children.