Skype with Author Hilary Reyl- she wrote Kids Like Us
From the novelKIDS LIKE USUntil I was eight years old, I called myself ‘you’ because that’s what everyone else called me, and I called other people ‘I’ because that’s what they called themselves. Once I finally learned to read, I was mostly able to get it straight. Still, I can’t get them right when I’m nervous…
KIDS LIKE US is the story of Martin, a teenager on the autism spectrum, who falls for Gilberte-Alice, a ‘normal’ French girl. While spending summer in the French countryside with his mother, Martin mistakes Gilberte for a character in a novel he is obsessed with—Marcel Proust’s masterpiece In Search of Lost Time. He gradually realizes she is not Gilberte, the fantasy girl, but a real person named Alice. Falling in love, in all its unpredictability, teaches Martin that he can in fact connect with others. Perhaps the line between reality and imagination does not have to be fixed. Hilary Reyl’s writing is sharp, original and brimming with empathy and humor. For those who loved The Curious Incident of the Dog at the Nighttime, and Counting by 7’s.
