The twentieth century was not a kind one for Americans with any sort of disability that could be perceived as affecting their mental capacity. Rachel Simon’s Story of Beautiful Girl explores this damning past and manages to expose its darkest sides without robbing its victims of dignity and honour.

Lynnie isn’t quite all there, and her family caved to society’s pressure to commit her to one of the institutions that dotted America during the first few decades across which this ambitious novel spans. Here, she has become exposed to the seedy underbelly of humanity, but she has also found the love of a deaf man whose illiteracy has cost him everything – but also led him to her.

When they escape the facility to ensure the safety of Lynnie’s baby, the product of the darkest episode the institution has forced her to live through, they have to find a home for the child they love unconditionally before the authorities track them down and drag them back to the hell they are meant to inhabit for the rest of their lives.

That fateful, stormy night will dictate the course of their futures, and those of the widow they encounter and the newborn girl they bestow on her.

One of the first things you’ll find out about Rachel Simon, if you look her up online, is that her first book is called Riding the Bus with My Sister and is about her disabled sister. Perhaps growing up with a disabled sister, in particular one who was not sent to the institutions that were so fashionable at the time, is how she gained her remarkable understanding of the psychology of people marginalised by their disabilities.

This also goes some way towards explaining the gentle care with which she describes rich inner lives that were, at the time, largely not believed to exist. But her ability to convey these concepts to her readers, to throw into crystal clarity the thoughts and emotions of people whose shoes she hasn’t personally walked in is simply down to a fine literary talent honed into a glorious and unwavering ability.

The Story of Beautiful Girl will break your heart. And even as you start picking up the shards and piecing it back together again, you’ll be looking forward to your next excursion into the extraordinary mind of Rachel Simon. Don’t let this book get away. Get it now, and clear your reading schedule until you’ve finished it. Thank me later.

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