Lectureer Andrew Solomon will speak on issues he addressed in his book, such as autisim and schizophrenia, and how these disabil: winnipegfreepress.com photo

Andrew Solomon, author of the new book ‘Far From The Tree: Parents, Children, & The Search For Identity,’ will speak at the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m.

In his book, Solomon discusses the experiences of families who have children with physical, mental, and social disabilities and how that changed their lives.

According to Alice Edwards, Ph.D., Solomon found how parents “adapted themselves to raise them (the children) in a loving way.”

Writing this book was no easy task.

“It took him 10 years to write it,” according to Dr. Edwards.

That means 10 years of interviewing families, doing research, and getting it all down on paper for the masses to read.

“What he finds in general is that it all comes down to compassion, it all comes down to love and figuring out who your child is and how you can help that child make the most of his or her life,” Edwards said.

In preparation for his visit, Edwards and Richard McCarty, Ph. D., bought 10 copies of the book and handed them out to a variety of faculty from different disciplines.

According to McCarty, “The work of Andrew Solomon is meaningful to a lot of different scholars and departments.”

“Andrew Solomon also fits in with the Mercy values, like being socially aware, and that he helps us in that he talks about how we understand and relate to each other’s given different identities and physical abilities, which he talks about in the books,” McCarty said.

Students can “expect to be very moved by some of his stories; they will be challenged to accept the diversity all around them,” according to Edwards.

“Once you know somebody with one disability, it’s easier to understand someone with another disability.”

Far From the Tree has gammered Solomon the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award, The New York Times Ten Best Books of 2012 award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and Yale University Research Advocacy Award, among others.