The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son » (Bargain)

Rupert Isaacson was born in London to a South African mother and a Zimbabwean father. Isaacson's first book, The Healing Land (Grove Press), was a 2004 New York Times Notable Book. He has travelled extensively in Africa, Asia, and North America for the British press and now lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Kristin, and their son, Rowan.

When his son Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson was devastated, afraid he might never be able to communicate with his child. But when Isaacson, a lifelong horseman, rode their neighbor's horse with Rowan, Rowan improved immeasurably. He was struck with a crazy idea: why not take Rowan to Mongolia, the one place in the world where horses and shamanic healing intersected?

THE HORSE BOY is the dramatic and heartwarming story of that impossible adventure. In Mongolia, the family found undreamed of landscapes and people, unbearable setbacks, and advances beyond their wildest dreams. This is a deeply moving, truly one-of-a-kind story--of a family willing to go to the ends of the earth to help their son, and of a boy learning to connect with the world for the first time.

Publishers Weekly

In this intense, polished account, the Austin, Tex., parents of an autistic boy trek to the Mongolian steppes to consult shamans in a last-ditch effort to alter his unraveling behavior. Author Isaacson (The Healing Land) and his wife, Kristin, a psychology professor, were told that the developmental delays of their young son, Rowan, were caused by autism. Floored, the parents scrambled to find therapy, which was costly and seemed punitive, when Isaacson, an experienced rider and trainer of horses from his youth in England, hoisted Rowan up in the saddle with him and took therapeutic rides on Betsy, the neighbor's horse. The repetitive rocking and balance stimulation boosted Rowan's language ability; inspired by the results, as well as encouraged by such experts as Temple Grandin and Isaacson's own experience working with African shamans, Isaacson hit on the self-described crazy idea of taking Rowan to the original horse people, the Mongolians, and find shamans who could help heal their son. The family went in July, accompanied conveniently by a film crew and van, which five-year-old Rowan often refused to leave, and over several rugged weeks rode up mountains, forded rivers and camped, while enduring strange shamanic ceremonies. Isaacson records heartening improvement in Rowan's firestormlike tantrums and incontinence, as he taps into an ancient, valuable form of spirit healing. (Apr.)

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Part One

1 The Seven-Year Child 7

2 Into the Inferno 16

3 The Horse Boy 35

4 A Time for Dreams 50

Part Two

5 The Adventure Begins 67

6 Lords of the Mountains, Lords of the Rivers 82

7 Mongolian Brother 97

8 West with the Rain 113

9 Fits and Starts 131

10 A Father's Mistake 150

11 Rowan 1, Fear 0 160

12 The Van Boy 175

13 Repairing the Wind Horse 193

14 The Heaven Horse Lake 207

15 Guinea Pigs of Moron 221

Part Three

16 Into Siberia 235

17 The White Ibex 251

18 Farther Up and Farther In 262

19 The Ghoste at the Top of the Mountain 276

20 A Hawk in the House 285

21 Interview with a Shaman 301

22 Miracle at the River 316

23 Four Minutes and Fifty-two Seconds 329