The Autists, Clara Tornvall
The Autists, Clara Tornvall
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

The Autists
Women on the Spectrum

Author: Clara Törnvall, Alice E. Olsson

Narrator: Kim Bretton

Unabridged: 6 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/19/2023


Synopsis

An incisive and deeply candid account that explores autistic women in culture, myth, and society through the prism of the author's own diagnosis.

Until the 1980s, autism was regarded as a condition found mostly in boys. Even in our time, autistic girls and women have largely remained undiagnosed. When portrayed in popular culture, women on the spectrum often appear simply as copies of their male counterparts—talented and socially awkward.

Yet autistic women exist, and always have. They are varied in their interests and in their experiences. Autism may be relatively new as a term and a diagnosis, but not as a way of being and functioning in the world. It has always been part of the human condition. So who are these women, and what does it mean to see the world through their eyes?

In The Autists, Clara Törnvall reclaims the language to describe autism and explores the autistic experience in arts and culture throughout history. From popular culture, films, and photography to literature, opera, and ballet, she dares to ask what it might mean to re-read these works through an autistic lens—what we might discover if we allow perspectives beyond the neurotypical to take center stage.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Suz on October 04, 2023

We have never sought what you praise, nor shunned what you are used to loathing. Erik Axel Karlfeldt (Swedish poet). What an unexpectedly outstanding book. With many thanks to Marina @scribepub for my physical copy to read and review. I learned so much which is one of the most important reasons that I......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth on January 17, 2024

3.5 stars As a fellow autist, I was very much looking forward to forward to reading Clara Törnvall's The Autists. Other than a few issues (that put more of a damper on my reading experience than I wish), which I'm going to touch on, I really enjoyed the overall of this book. First, what I liked. The......more

Goodreads review by Mikaela on October 16, 2021

Från första sida suger Törnvall in läsaren, det är skickligt och personligt berättat. Den autistiska kvinnan för upp en skyddande hand för ögonen och kisar när hon, nästan för allra första gången, kliver ut i rampljuset och synliggörs. Det känns storslaget. Både kulturhistoriens kända kvinnor och pe......more

Goodreads review by Emma on February 22, 2024

This book offers many bursts of insight, but they are cursory and don’t go very in depth. It’s not surprising—the author is 47 now, and she was diagnosed at 42, which means she was diagnosed in 2019. This book was published in Swedish in 2021, meaning she undertook the project of writing a book abou......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca on January 14, 2022

Boken väver samman Clara Törnvalls egna tankar om livet med autism och världen runt omkring henne med fakta om autismens historia. Boken kontextualiserar och reder ut missuppfattning kring autism, och med ett fantastiskt och slående språk blir boken svår att lägga ifrån sig. En bok som alla, oavsett......more