Great and Unfortunate Things
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Great and Unfortunate Things is Jason Arday’s memoir of overcoming remarkable challenges and responding to adversity with resilience, published days before his untimely death on August 14, 2026.
Jason Arday grew up in a lively corner of South London as the second youngest of three boys. He was diagnosed with autism and developmental delays at age three, and experts told his parents he would never speak, write, or live independently—and should be institutionalized.
His parents refused. Instead, his extraordinary mother, Giff, drawing on her faith and thinking outside the box, embraced his neurodivergence and devoted herself to helping him realize a potential few others believed possible—using everything from the proverbs of her West African culture to music, sports, and film to help him make sense of the world.
In Great and Unfortunate Things, we see how Arday went from being nonverbal as a child and illiterate until he was eighteen to scaling unimag-inable heights as an adult. Without romanticizing the struggle, this is a story of determination against seemingly insurmountable odds—and of a family and a small group of believers whose compassion helped him see what is possible.
A powerful story for our moment, Arday’s journey is a testament to resilience, dignity, and the life-changing force of community in action.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sociologist Arday's inspiring debut illuminates his evolution from nonspeaking autistic child to one of the youngest academics ever appointed to the University of Cambridge. Born in 1985, Arday was diagnosed with autism and developmental delays at age three and did not speak until he was 12. He recalls enduring barbed taunts from classmates and demeaning diagnoses from doctors ("There's no one in there") while struggling academically well into adolescence. A turning point arrived in early adulthood, when an 18-year-old Arday learned to read and write after meeting his future wife, Debs, who introduced him to phonics while they worked together at a sporting goods store in South London. In 2005, Arday earned admission to St. Mary's College, where he parlayed his love of sports into a degree in physical education. As Arday charts his subsequent path to a career in academia, he pays tribute to the people who shaped his progress, including his mother, Giff, and Angela, a fellow student who helped him take notes during his earliest days at St. Mary's. Arday's perseverance and self-belief are undeniably affecting. It's a stirring story, straightforwardly told.
