Finding Lina: A Mother’s Journey from Autism to Hope

In the afterword of this intense memoir, Hjalmarsson writes, “I could keep writing this book until both Lina and I are walking around with canes, without teeth or memory,” and the reader believes her. The obsessive documentation of her daughter Lina’s sudden decline into autism and her quest for successful treatments make it clear that there is no day off for a parent of a child with disabilities as severe as Lina’s. Hjalmarsson’s passion for her daughter’s cause is both impressive and daunting, and her occasional lapse into blaming doctors, strangers on the street, or places—Rhode Island fails to suit her needs, and she mourns “leaving the civilization of New York City”—can be off-putting, until readers remember her predicament. For any parent, the sense of there-but-for-the-grace-of-God is strong when confronted with stories of children succumbing to unexplainable illness, and Hjalmarsson earns the reader’s sympathy with repeated tales from an impossibly hard daily life. Undaunted, the author follows traditional Western and more holistic paths in an attempt to find a cure; she certainly has much to teach about her medical and therapeutic trials, but her biggest lesson is helpful for all parents: we must not “get so ambitious in our quest to cure what we consider unacceptable that we forget to listen and be present.” (Sept.)