Banishing Verona

I recently finished reading the novel Banishing Verona, by Margot Livesey. It was a book suggested to us by an attendee at the ASNC annual conference, and we were surprised to have never heard of it before. One of the things we've noted is a lack of fiction for adults in the autism book field, but, with the amazing mainstream success of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, this seems to be changing. This seems to me to be a very good thing, because it is when things become more accepted and commonplace that they start appearing in mainstream fiction of writers mostly unconnected with autism directly.

In this case, Livesey says in the acknowledgements:

I'm grateful to those who talked to me, both professionally and personally, about their experiences with Asperger's syndrome.

I have to say, I think she did a fantastic job creating a real and very likeable adult character with AS.

I've had a hard time deciding exactly what to say about the story of this book, because I don't want to give too much of the plot away. The story has many unexpected twists and turns, and they are what make it so hard to put down. While I was reading this one, I had several days where I had to remind myself that I should, in fact, go home when the workday was over, because the book would be there to read when I got back in the morning. So I'll try to give you a basic idea, without giving too much away.

The story takes place in London, and is told in alternating sections from the points of view of each of the two main characters. Zeke Cafarelli is an adult man with AS. He has a successful house painting business, and enjoys doing all his jobs right, with a lot of attention to detail. His parents, on the other hand, think the painting business is a way of rebellion, and would far prefer for him to take over their produce shop. Verona McIntyre is a pregnant single woman slightly older than Zeke, who shows up out of the blue at a house he is working on, claiming to be the niece of the owners. She stays for two days, helping him paint, talking about anything than comes to mind, they unexpectedly fall in love, and then she disappears, leaving behind her grandfather's diary.

This is when Zeke's whole life changes. As one might expect for a person with AS, he has never felt very comfortable with change, and he has many problems with anxiety. At one point in the past, he had become completely agoraphobic. Now he finds himself confronting people he doesn't know in an attempt to find this mysterious woman, boarding a plane and flying to Boston on short notice, befriending new people in a strange city, and, just for added flavor in the background, having to mediate his parents' health crises and failing marriage.

Verona's story, too, is quite complicated. Before the book started, she was a successful radio interviewer with her own morning show. But now, a very strange series of events has thrown her life into chaos, and seems to be taking Zeke along for the ride, as he has become her anchor in the storm.

The dual perspectives on the story, and the sheer bizarreness of the continual series of near-misses that makes up their strange courtship, keeps the reader hanging on, wondering just what will happen next. I won't give away any more. You'll have to read the book to find out what happens!