Laura is a woman in her sixties, retired, living with her husband and Marco, a son who has tested her patience from childhood through all forty years of adulthood: Marco is autistic.
Words Set Free is a title that perfectly captures this book's structure. Laura narrates the dailiness of life with her son by transcribing her thoughts almost verbatim—in a loose, unstructured form that reads like an extended stream of consciousness and dialogue. Her thoughts are honest and raw, revealing a woman of changeable moods and unpredictable impulses. Not all of them are clear. Some are out of place. Some are mean, some tedious, some frivolous.
This "half-serious diary" makes no grand claims. It simply chronicles one year in the lives of Marco and Laura, who uses that year as a springboard to explore ethical, social, and spiritual questions—offering readers much to think about.
Matteo Cinti, 2013