The Emperor, C'est Moi [Hardcover]

Hugo Horiot is in love with wheels and all that cranks or turns. He is obsessed with the otherworldly language of pipes—they run, he imagines, from his family home to the center of the earth. He causes endless trouble at home and hates school. He muses: “I dream asleep, I dream awake”—but he dreams so hard he shuts out the world with reveries that are not just curious but dangerous and painful too. School is a prison he must escape, his teachers oppressors, and his classmates “a band of jolly torturers.” This is the portrait of a boy who might happen to suffer from autism, but who is also a beautiful rebel inspired to blaze his own path through childhood to find an enduring sense of personal freedom.“An astonishing and riveting tale from the ‘inside’ of autism—brave, brutal, funny, triumphant and terribly moving.  As a doctor, I had no idea, and now I do.  Required reading for anyone—parent, teacher, school-mate, health-care worker—who knows a person with this syndrome.” —Samuel Shem, M.D, author of The House of God and The Spirit of the Place.

“Haunting, original, dazzling in its mixture of fancy and specificity, a welcome addition to memory and understanding...” —Tim Page, author of Parallel Play

Hugo Horiot refuses to allow his Autistic behaviors to control his life. Instead, he uses them to put himself in a position of power, triumphantly emerging from his violent, isolated world with only his mother’s help. An important read for the growing number of individuals with Autism who wish to live independent and purposeful lives.  —Suzanne Reek