My name is Shawn McDaniel. I'm 14 years old. I think my father is planning to kill me . . .
'My life is one of those "good news - bad news" jokes. I could go on about my good news for hours, but you probably want to hear the punch line, my bad news, right? First off, my parents got divorced ten years ago because of me. My dad didn't divorce my mother, or my sister, Cindy, or my brother, Paul - he divorced me. He couldn't handle my condition, so he had to leave. My condition? Well, that brings us to the guts of my bad news.'
Shawn McDaniel has severe cerebral palsy. He has no control over his muscles, no means of communication - and no hope of improvement. Yet humour, joy and love sit alongside frustration in Shawn's mind. Physically powerless, his internal life is full of unseen pleasures.
Shawn's father perceives only pain, waste, the devastation of an uninhabited body. And Shawn suspects that as his father's sorrow builds, so too does his desire to act . . .
In this extraordinary and powerful novel, the reader learns to look beyond the obvious and finds a character whose spirit is rich beyond imagining and whose story is unforgettable.
