A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards is a brilliant and emotionally charged debut novel by Ann Bauer. She writes of  4 year old Edward disppearing from his family and the world, into a slow and uncharted descent into Autism.

Bauer writes from the point of view of Rachel, Edward’s monther, and shows the effect Edward’s withdrawal has on her, and her marriage, and the things that desperate parents will do to try to help their children.

The story is so believable in part because the character of Edward is loosly based on Bauer’s own child, and in part because she is a wonderful writer.

I found the book sad, moving, at times funny, but always engaging-I just couldn’t put it down-and I won’t soon forget it..