Bewildered follows the challenges of an astrobiologist and his 9 year old son, following the death of Ally, the wife and mother. Robbie, the son, is “on the spectrum” and the father Theo Byrne struggles to help Robbie through his rages, obsessions, and depression without the use of psychopharmacology.

Robbie has a voracious love of the natural world fed by his very knowledgeable father who helps him learn to identify all forms of flora and fauna and encourages his skill making detailed drawings of the life forms he carefully studies. When school proves too much, he agrees to home school Robbie. But ultimately he is faced with the fact that his fragile son needs help.

He seeks out another scientist, Currier, who is developing a unique form of bio-feedback where you learn to modulate your emotions and psyche through the recordings of others emotions. We later learn that Currier had been a previous boyfriend of Ally’s and had saved a biofeedback session with Ally which is used in Robbie’s treatment.

Robbie responds well to the treatment and somehow feels that it gives him the tools to better modulate his emotions. Robbie is transformed and becomes highly social and engages in the world in a way he had never previously been able to.

But suddenly the funding is pulled from the biofeedback project and Robbie dives into a depression and rage that Theo is unable to help him manage.

Bewildered is fundamentally a book about otherness, but also our dearth of creativity in imagining other mindsets, points of view, treatments, and even other worlds. Theo’s intelligence and persistence in helping his son touched me both as a reader and a parent. From trying to calm him at night with stories of imaginary other worlds, to their long hikes in the forest identifying plants and birds, Theo used his intellect to stay connected to his son and to give his son tools to keep him grounded in the world around him – patience, keen observation, and wonderment.

I give this book 4.5👍 out of 5👍.