Winner - 6th Annual Beverly Hills Book Award for Relationships and Parenting & Families
Award Finalist in the "Parenting & Family" category of the 2017 Best Book Awards
Finalist, 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the category of Memoirs—Overcoming Adversity/Tragedy
Linda Atwell and her strong-willed daughter, Lindsey—a high-functioning young adult with intellectual disabilities—have always had a complicated relationship. But when Lindsey graduates from Silverton High School at nineteen and gets a job at Goodwill, she also moves into a newly remodeled cottage in her parents’ backyard—and Linda believes that all their difficult times may finally be behind them.
Life, however, proves not to be so simple. As Lindsey plunges into adulthood, she experiments with sex, considers a tubal ligation, and at twenty quits Goodwill and runs away with Emmett, a man more than twice her age. As Lindsey grows closer to Emmett, she slips further away from her family—but Linda, determined to save her daughter, refuses to give up. A touching memoir with unexpected moments of joy and humor, Loving Lindsey is a story about independence, rescue, resilience, and, most of all, love.
Industry Reviews
2017 Beverly Hills Book Award Winner in Parenting & Family
2017 Beverly Hills Book Award Winner in Relationships
2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Memoirs (Overcoming Adversity/Tragedy)
2018 International Book Awards Finalist in the Parenting & Family category
"Atwell's evocative descriptions provide added depth to the characters, particularly Lindsey, whose voice emanates from the pages. A brutally honest, affecting memoir of family resilience."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Linda Atwell is a beacon of light in her book about the richness of raising a daughter with special needs. Lindsey stories are woven into the midst of Atwell's own very full life, and she truly tells it like it is. She shares her experiences through the lenses of love, humor, and the human condition."
-Diana Dolan Mattick, Special Education Teacher and Learning Specialist
"I LOVE this book! Loving Lindsey is a brave and big-hearted story every parent should read. Linda Atwell writes with generosity and depth about what it means to fiercely love and accept each other."
-Ariel Gore, author of The End of Eve and Atlas of the Human Heart
"Atwell's strong relationship with Lindsey, her special needs adult daughter, carries her (and us) through heartbreaking times that include fear, frustration, and disappointment that are always tempered by unwavering love and a determination to equip her daughter with skills for an independent life. A riveting narrative of mother-daughter struggles and rewards."
-Matilda Butler, memoir coach and award-winning author of Rosie's Daughters: The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story
"Loving Lindsey is provocative and it will leave you changed, which is the highest praise I can give a book."
-Debby Dodds, Author of Amish Guys Don't Call
"Atwell shines a light on the complicated issues involved in loving and living with someone with special needs. Whether you are a family member of someone with intellectual disabilities or just looking in from the outside, you will be moved."
-Teresa Sullivan, Author of Mikey and Me: Life with My Exceptional Sister
"Told with astonishing honesty and candor, this is a story about the courage and bravery of daily life in a family bringing a 'forever child' into adulthood. It's a story about real love in real life."
-Corinne Tippett, Author of Just a Couple of Chickens and When No One Else Would Fly
"As the older sister of a brother with special needs, I despair over those stories that portray people with disabilities as carefree candidates for sainthood. Linda Atwell's Loving Lindsey provides a candid look at what it means to be the parent of an adult child with special needs. She captures the complexity of her relationship with her daughter in prose rich with compassion and wit. Lindsey emerges from these pages as a real person--complicated, challenging, and absolutely delightful."
-Melissa Hart, author of Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family and Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood
"As the parent of a child with disabilities, I often wonder and worry about what the future holds for my son. Atwell's tender, funny, real, and at times heart-wrenching memoir about her daughter-who as an adult woman still sleeps with a Cabbage Patch doll yet holds a job, gets a place of her own and falls in love, as doomed as it may be-portrays the self-sufficiency and experiences that I want my son to someday enjoy. Loving Lindsey shows that it is entirely possible to have intellectual disability and also have a good life."
-Ellen Seidman, author of the award-winning blog Love That Max
"Ms. Atwell writes with clarity and contemplation through the triumphs and tragedies of raising someone with special needs. Her memoir is a moving exploration of a mother's resolve to keep he
