The astonishing story of autism as it has been discovered and felt by parents, children and doctors

The first child to be diagnosed with autism, Donald Triplett, was born more than eighty years ago in Mississippi, and in the years that followed, autism remained a rare condition, limited to the eleven children mentioned in the article announcing the disorder’s discovery. Today physicians, parents and politicians regularly speak of an epidemic of autism.

In a Different Key is the extraordinary story of the quest to understand autism. By introducing an unforgettable cast of children, families and clinicians, award-winning journalists John Donvan and Caren Zucker unearth the humanity at the heart of the scientific effort to treat this condition.