A father of an autistic teenager now eighteen years old, Gianluca Nicoletti is a well-known journalist who has long been willing to put himself on the line when addressing questions about autism.
The claim in his book's title may catch you off guard, but reading it reveals the many facets beneath it. Nicoletti grapples with something every parent of a handicapped child faces with deep anxiety: who will care for my son when I can no longer be the one at his side?
Finding a place—or perhaps building one—that fully respects who he is, loves him, and both allows and encourages him to express himself within his capabilities. The question is a tender one, and we cannot fault a parent's bitterness when he often finds himself battling prejudice and red tape so that his son and others like him might have the fundamental opportunities their lives require (and that the families bound to them require as well). Still, he sometimes seems wary from the outset toward certain existing resources.
The idea of Insettopia (an environment and way of living that is both integrated and protected, where autistic people and non-autistic people alike can pursue their life project) is utopian, yes—but worth taking seriously all the same. Forgive me for a digression that strays far from the author's thinking… but it seems to me that Fede e Luce, from a different angle and in other settings, has sometimes managed and continues to manage to do precisely this.
Cristina Tersigni, 2015