Amy Ellis Nutt is the author of Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family and Shadows Bright as Glass: The Remarkable Story of One Man's Journey from Brain Trauma to Artistic Triumph.From Nutt's Q & A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: Why did you decide to write about the Maines family [in Becoming Nicole]?Learn more about the book and author at Amy Ellis Nutt's website.
A: In an unusual way, this book landed in my lap. I had read the Boston Globe story in 2011 when it came out, and later I received an e-mail from someone I had known, Jennifer Levi, who was the lawyer representing the family.
The family was inundated. They didn’t want to do any more media; the article was a one-off for them…but they realized down the road they might want to tell their story in a longer form…
When I first met them, I realized it was more than a story about one amazing child, it was an exceptional family story. I wanted to tell all of their stories.
The mother who was convinced that her job was to make sure her children were happy and safe, the father who struggled—probably the biggest transformation was his, a remarkable kid whose confidence led the way.
It’s a credit to her mother and eventually her father that she was not raised with a sense of shame. It’s the ordinary family and the extraordinary story that drew me to it, and to tell the science, because ...[read on]
The Page 99 Test: Shadows Bright as Glass.
Writers Read: Amy Ellis Nutt (April 2011).
--Marshal Zeringue