The Autists

An incisive and deeply candid account that explores autistic women in culture, myth, and society through the prism of the author's own diagnosis.

Until the 1980s, autism was regarded as a condition found mostly in boys. Even in our time, autistic girls and women have largely remained undiagnosed. When portrayed in popular culture, women on the spectrum often appear simply as copies of their male counterparts—talented and socially awkward.

Yet autistic women exist, and always have. They are varied in their interests and in their experiences. Autism may be relatively new as a term and a diagnosis, but not as a way of being and functioning in the world. It has always been part of the human condition. So who are these women, and what does it mean to see the world through their eyes?

In The Autists, Clara Tornvall reclaims the language to describe autism and explores the autistic experience in arts and culture throughout history. From popular culture, films, and photography to literature, opera, and ballet, she dares to ask what it might mean to re-read these works through an autistic lens—what we might discover if we allow perspectives beyond the neurotypical to take centre stage.

"Tornvall has written an important, illuminating first book, one that deserves to sit alongside the best insider accounts of autism... The Autists should be required reading for all parents, partners, friends and colleagues of anyone on the autism spectrum, as well as a road map for autistic women navigating the neurotypical world." -James Cook, Times Literary Supplement

"Journalist Tornvall seeks comfort in the stories of other autistic women throughout history in her illuminating debut... An insightful and involving narrator, Tornvall movingly explores how women with so-called 'high-functioning autism' persisted in harnessing their abilities whether or not they lived in a time that recognised their neurotype. This winning combination of memoir and cultural history stimulates and entertains in equal measure." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Even if you ought to avoid hyping the autistic as superheroes, Tornvall shows that conformity to the norm is a ludicrous waste of the power in these beautiful brains." -Dagens Nyheter