This is a riveting and redemptive family memoir. Donna Thomsonís vivid descriptions of her own experience in treading delicately through daily care, medical emergencies and the medical bureaucracy as she and her family cope with her son Nicholasí cerebral palsy is both inspirational and instructive. From the first tentative diagnosis to the celebration of Nicholasí 21st birthday last summer, Thomson examines how she and her family have tried, with various degrees of success, to cope with Nicholasí needs, while at the same time ensuring that their lives, and Nicholasí life, have value and dignity. Donna Thomsonís own experience with adversity takes on new meaning when viewed through the lens of Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen and other philosophersí roadmaps of how to realize a good life against all odds.