January 5, 2011

The book, which was recently excerpted in The New York Times, offers a poignant reflection on the inextricable bond and life-defining relationship Shawn has shared with his autistic twin sister, Mary, who was placed in an institution for the mentally disabled at the age of eight.

"It wasn't until I reached late middle age that I could even begin to acknowledge that being Mary's twin was a central fact, perhaps the central fact, of my life," Shawn writes. "All I did feel was a kind of blank place inside, where memories and feelings should have been."