Marcelo in the Real World
Francisco Stork
Marcelo in the Real World
Francisco Stork
The paperback edition of one of the most acclaimed novels of the year – a love story & legal drama that received five starred reviews and multiple honors.
The term cognitive disorder implies there is something wrong with the way I think or the way I perceive reality. I perceive reality just fine. Sometimes I perceive more of reality than others.Marcelo Sandoval hears music that nobody else can hear – part of an autism-like condition that no doctor has been able to identify. But his father has never fully believed in the music or Marcelo’s differences, and he challenges Marcelo to work in the mailroom of his law firm for the summer … to join the real world.There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it’s a picture he finds in a file a picture of a girl with half a face that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.
Review
Kathy Kozlowski
What a fascinating read. I loved it. Told through the eyes of Marcelo, a 16-year-old with Asperger’s Syndrome, it is a novel that inevitably will be compared to Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. And it is as good, but quite different.
Marcelo’s father insists that his son take summer employment in the mailroom of his highly successful corporate law firm, instead of in a protected environment with the ponies the boy so loves. The idea is that he will learn to cope and prove himself in ‘the real world’. How does a gentle, highly logical, spiritual young man cope with this frenetic world with its corporate ethics? How does he relate to Jasmine in the mailroom, or Wendel, the other boss’s son, when he thinks so differently?
For ages 13 and up, though I suspect older readers will enjoy it most, both for its ideas and its story.
Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton.
This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in approx 4 weeks
Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.
Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.