From Harper Lee to Mark Haddon, novelist Paul Wilson chooses the best literature on lives too frequently overlooked or misunderstood
Illuminating ... Luke Treadaway As Christopher Boone And Paul Ritter As Ed in the National Theatre's adaptation of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time. Photograph: Manuel Harlan
Great books take us where we haven't been, illuminate dark corners and leave our own familiar world subtly changed, as if its axis has been marginally tilted. But despite literature's fervour to explore the far reaches of human experience, disability is for the most part disregarded, or at best pushed to the margins. Disabled protagonists are few and far between.
In my latest book, Mouse and the Cossacks, Mouse is a young girl who hasn't spoken for four years. She is an elective mute. She is also the narrator of the novel, through whose eyes and ears ("My ears work fine, it's just my voice that doesn't work") we come to understand not only her world but that of the perplexing old man whose farmhouse she and her mother are renting, and her young neighbour who has a learning disability. Of my previous novels, Someone to Watch Over Me, Do White Whales Sing at the Edge of the World? and Noah, Noah all feature characters with a learning disability, and The Visiting Angel is based in part on my experience of working for the Richmond Fellowship in mental health therapeutic communities.
Full list and synopses
In my latest book, Mouse and the Cossacks, Mouse is a young girl who hasn't spoken for four years. She is an elective mute. She is also the narrator of the novel, through whose eyes and ears ("My ears work fine, it's just my voice that doesn't work") we come to understand not only her world but that of the perplexing old man whose farmhouse she and her mother are renting, and her young neighbour who has a learning disability. Of my previous novels, Someone to Watch Over Me, Do White Whales Sing at the Edge of the World? and Noah, Noah all feature characters with a learning disability, and The Visiting Angel is based in part on my experience of working for the Richmond Fellowship in mental health therapeutic communities.
Full list and synopses
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