TITLE: Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum (Kindle Edition)
AUTHOR: Tammet, Daniel
SUBJECT AREA: Autism-Personal Stories
PUBLISHER: The Experiment
PUBLICATION DATE: 2025
NUMBER OF PAGES: 276 (for Print Edition)
This is the second of Daniel Tammet’s books I have read, the first being his autobiography Born on a Blue Day. This one is a fascinating set of stories about people with ASD bringing home the concept of it being a spectrum because this showcases the sheer variety of experiences among autistic people.
The book begins with Vaughan, a highly competent orthopedic surgeon, who also had a strong predilection for geography, being fascinated with maps and winding treks. The author describes Vaughan’s childhood growing up in Wales and his career as a surgeon. The book continues with other riveting stories, including Kana, a Japanese woman who sets out to study loneliness. This is so timely as the former Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, has found that loneliness is the “new smoking” … just bad for one’s health.
Subsequent chapters feature stories about a detective named Warren, who sets out to solve the mystery of a man found floating in a lake in Dartmouth Park in West Bromwich, England and he goes about trying to solve the case, using his attention to detail, an important quality found in many people with ASD. Also featured is Naosie, an Irishwoman who struggled to deal with her anxiety and who was a student at Trinity University in Dublin, Billy a boy with autism who developed a serious illness, but made a full recovery when the right treatment was found, Amanda, who was in a major accident, yet she goes on to meet a well-known poet, Cedric, who dabbles in politics and ran for office and Ayo, a woman from Nigeria, who had to move to England with her family as a child when their house was burglarized and who studied engineering. Last, but by no means least is the all-famous Dan Aykroyd, who starred in Ghostbusters along with Bill Murray and on Saturday Night Live with Gilda Radner and Jane Curtain.
This was a brilliant and riveting collection of stories that really does showcase how varied the autistic experience truly is and that like the proverbial snowflake, no two people with ASD are exactly alike. It would be a boring world. indeed, if we were all alike!