Book Excerpt for the Day

    Another far less common group is where Balder hoped that August belonged: the so-called prodigious savants, individuals whose talents are sensational whichever way one looks at them.  Kim Peek, for example, who was the basis for Rain Man, was severely mentally handicapped and could not get dressed by himself.  Yet he memorized twelve thousand books and could give a lightning-quick answer to almost any factual question.  He was known as Kimputer.

    Or Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic English boy who was extremely withdrawn as a child and uttered his first word when he was six – it happened to be “paper”.  By the age of seven Stephen was able to draw groups of buildings perfectly and in the minutest detail, having seen them for just one brief moment.  He was flown above London in a helicopter and when he landed he drew the entire city in a fantastic, dizzying panorama, and with a wonderfully individual touch.

    (from The Girl In The Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz)

     8*/10.  The full review is here.

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