Eye Contact

By Cammie McGovern

Book Overview

A young girl has been murdered and the only witness is a child who cannot tell what he saw In the woods of a small town, Adam, a nine-year-old autistic boy, is discovered hiding near to the body of his classmate. They both wandered off from the school playground several hours earlier, and now the police are relying on Adam as the only witness to an appalling crime. But he can?t tell the police what he saw?or what he heard. Barely verbal on the best of days, Adam has retreated into a silent world that Cara, his mother, knows only too well.With her community in shock and her son unable to help with the police investigation, Cara tries to decode the puzzling events. Adam has never broken the rules before, so why did he disappear with the little girl during recess? As a single mother, Cara has devoted her life to opening paths of communication between her son and the outside world. Now, she must interpret the changes in Adam?s behavior not only to help him through the trauma, but to help the police catch a killer. Cammie McGovern brings her own experience as the mother of an autistic child to articulate the struggles?and the victories?that consume the lives of parents raising children with special needs. A powerful story of the tangled emotional bond between mother and son, and a thrilling novel of psychological suspense, Eye Contactwon?t let you go. Lovers of Mystic Riverwill be captivated by this fresh and fascinating journey into the world of a child in crisis and a mother who longs to bring him through unscathed. BACKCOVER: Eye Contactis a page-turner and I tore through it in twenty-four hours. But it?s more than that?it?s also a nuanced, poignant exploration of how all of us, with or without autism, struggle to find our place in the world. Cammie McGovern writes with grace and compassion.? ?Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep "Cammie McGovern makes a satisfying marriage between an exploration of one of modern parenthood's greatest frustrations--autism--and murder mystery. Moreover, she displays considerable insight into the complex, often cruel hierarchies of childhood." ?Lionel Shriver, author of We Need to Talk About Kevin Once in a blue moon comes a literary thriller so full of our everyday lives that it rocks you back on your heels. This is it! This book. These sweet, funny, heartbreaking characters--these mothers and sons, broken friends and lovers--including one unforgettable little boy whose last gesture in those deadly, mysterious woods recalls our lost innocence. Eye Contactis a thrilling mystery tautly told, and beautifully realized. In it, Cammie McGovern leads us through the shadowlands of our own hometowns where words break down and paranoias proliferate, even as we yearn for one lost moment of fluency. This is a book of secrets that will change you.? ?Michael Paterniti, New York Times bestselling author of Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain Twin mysteries lie at the heart of this riveting and unforgettable novel: the identity and motives of a child-killer, and the inscrutable workings of an autistic boy?s mind. Only a writer like McGovern, whose brilliant gift for storytelling keeps pace with her unflinching emotional acuity, could take on both mysteries and succeed with such power and grace.? ?Julie Orringer, author of How To Breathe Underwater "In the tradition of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Cammie McGovern delivers a compelling murder mystery that intrigues as much by what it hides as by what it so deftly reveals--the stark, poignant, deeply intimate moments in the lives of people living with autism and those who love them." ?Patricia Stacey, author of The Boy Who Loved Windows.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670037656
• ISBN13: 9780670037650
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.1" x 6.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Eye Contact

Loved this book!! Relatable to all of us. We have all known bullies. We are all fallible. We all have faults...we are all human. Shocked at all the possible perpetrators. Kept me guessing till the end.

Well written

Delving into the world of children with autism is not easy, but this book gave you sympathy for the children as well as their parents.

Nailbiting, heartrending, and true

What a disturbingly beautiful book. I read this in one big gulp because the mystery was too compelling to put on hold. In that genre it reminded me most of Ross Macdonald, not because of formal qualities but because it was more about the mystery of relationship than the actual crime. As in her previous book, Cammie McGovern writes with tortuous brilliance about betrayal and love. At the heart of the story is the mystery of Cara's autistic child, Adam, but her broken friendships with Suzette and Kevin, which prefigure and establish the lifework of raising Adam, are equally compelling. If Adam is a mystery, so is Cara. She seems destined to have become the mother of this child, even though there's nothing divine or cosmic leading her down that path. Her interests, her failures, and her nature lead her to become a good mother and a detective of the human soul. Cara is a wonderfully flawed person, a richly reflective and loving mother and friend. She confronts the "autism epidemic" without much anger or rancor, perhaps because her choices have led her to be a single mother and maybe because she's learning what she needs to learn. I kept being struck by how well-equipped she was for loving Adam, even though she often feels inadequate and certainly is not as well-supported by her community as she might be. Like many protagonists she has a maddening tendency to go it alone. In the course of the novel she learns to rely on others, which helps her let Adam do the same. That's always good to see, especially given Adam's autism and her fear and isolation. The secondary characters are vivid and moving - especially the other children. Most of them are somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but after a while that seems like a meaningless distinction. The term differently-abled took on real meaning for me. McGovern's narrative is shared by enough capable, perceptive people to make us appreciate each person's perceptual gifts. One must do that to solve a mystery - at least in our day and age. At several points characters think they've found the essential clue, and the reader goes along with it. In the end, the situation is too complex for the "lone gunman" solution. Of course, that's also true of autism or of life. It takes a village - and speaking of that, I loved the small-town ambiance of this novel. At first Cara seems to have left her past behind, like a person who has moved to the big city, but over the course of the novel her past keeps knocking until she turns to face it. Thanks to the setting, that movement seems natural instead of contrived. This is a beautifully written work, but what you'll remember most are the intensity of feeling and the author's honest account of parenting an autistic child. I closed the book in awe and wonder - this life is beautiful and heartrending. So is the book.

I can see why this book made all the "hot" lists!

Wow. Now I understand how Eye Contact made it to all those "Hot for 2006" lists. This novel was well written, compelling, and thoughtful. As I read along, I came up with new theories of whodunnit and how, and kept revising them with more information. Then in the end, I was wrong, and it turned out that the answer was right there in front of me the whole time- I loved that! I read a great deal, and this book is defintely a cut above the rest. Elegant and complex in style, McGovern is also able to attain a conversational tone that makes this enjoyable and easy to read, but very hard to put down. Many of my friends have read it as well, and we can't stop talking about it. This book has made my summer!

Thriller with a Heart

Eye Contact takes the mystery genre to a brand new place with the completely original character of Adam, an autistic boy who witnesses a horrible crime. Obviously penned by someone with a great deal of first-hand knowledge about autism, we as readers are led into a world many of us have never had to imagine before. The rich detail of Adam's inner world is shared with us, as well as the thoughts of his dedicated mother and the other adults and children around him. In addition to being a page-turning mystery, it's a touching portrait of a mother helping her son negotiate the world around him. And the final image of the book has haunted me since I finished reading. Eye Contact is a richly textured, very satisfying read that succeeds on every level.

Breath Stealer

I am a lover of mystery novels, and Eye Contact more than fills my requirements for a satisfying read. The book offers a gruesome and unfortunately believable crime, humanly flawed characters, psychologically disturbing yet frighteningly normal suspects, and a realistic yet uplifting conclusion. Although I was initially drawn to Eye Contact because of the mystery element (which certainly kept me turning the pages eager to find out "who done it"), the mystery is not what sticks with me a week after finishing the book. Ultimately, Eye Contact is a book about parenting. McGovern's quiet and occasionally heartbreaking insights into the parent/child relationship take my breath away. Eye Contact captures the essential paradox of parenthood: loving our children for who they are within the limitations of who we are.

A Great Book!

Cammie McGovern has written a thoughtful and engrossing book. It is actually that rare sort of book that pursues two avenues at once, and navigates the plotlines with ease. One part of the book is mystery; when a little girl's body is found in the woods next to the elementary school playground, the only witness is a little boy with autism. Non-verbal, and low functioning, it is left to his mother and a sympathetic detective to try to get to the boy's inner self to unmask the murderer. But. at the same time, the book also beautifully and thoughtfully writes about the challenges of raising a child with autism. "Eye Contact" does not spare the reader the harsh realities of the life. What other parents take for granted - a stroll through the supermarket, a movie theater on a rainy afternoon - these are minefields of tantrums, meltdowns, and a total misunderstanding because of the lack of communication. The mother in this book is nothing less than heroic, and the other characters- the little boy, the police officers, and high school friends from the mother's past - all envelope you as the mystery progresses. What a great read! Cammie McGovern has written a great book, and since the book jacket also identifies her as the mother of a child with autism, we could also call this book a memoir of sorts. This is a truly talented and courageous writer, who has left this reader anxious for the next book.