Dear Gabriel - A letter

“We need a wall at our backs, you and I. Sometimes a stroke from the palm of a hand is enough, at other times we need to erect huge edifices of insight and comprehension in order not to fall, plunge into bewilderment, foolishness and fear. At times we are each other’s wall, sometimes you are mine, but often I have to be yours alone, for you stumble and fall so easily. And sometimes that scares me, Gabriel, when I have nothing to hold onto myself, nothing to cling to, only wind and light and open sea, and you tumble beyond any comprehension.”

Dear Gabriel is a personal letter from a father to his autistic son. With great love and profound wonder, the author tries to understand what makes Gabriel different from other children, and to find words for his grief, but also for his pride and the insight he derives from the experience of his son’s fundamental otherness.

Praise:
”In a beautiful, clearly chiselled prose, Freihow leads us through the whole threatening labyrinth that an ordinary day is for his son … Without any hint of the ‘disclosure mentality’ that characterizes our time’s prevailing ideology of privatization, Halfdan W. Freihow has written a wise and attentive declaration of love against a dark backdrop.”
Bergens Tidende