How to Walk with Steve

How to Walk with Steve is a memoir of a boy's connection with his autistic brother in a family defined by alcoholism, art, and death in a decaying Midwestern city.

With exposed-nerve scenes, Robert Fromberg immerses us in an early childhood made relentlessly unpredictable by autism and addiction; teenage years alone in 1970s New York City; and young adulthood as guardian of his brother after the death of their parents.

Praise for How to Walk with Steve:

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"Robert Fromberg's poignant memoir details the painful ordinariness of misery -- even for the bright scion of an artistic family . . . In refusing easy consolations, Fromberg has created a memoir that shines like polished bone."

--Patricia Eakins, author of The Hungry Girls and Other Stories

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"Without a trace of affectation or adornment, Fromberg depicts the searing moments that made him who he is. Never have I read a more authentic, deeply-felt rendering of a child's developing mind."

--Leslie Lawrence, author of The Death of Fred Astaire and Other Essays from a Life Outside the Lines

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"Fragmented yet unified, direct yet elusive, How to Walk with Steve is a vivid memoir about family and geography, obligation and freedom. Fromberg has a remarkable ability to inject meaning into silence, into the cracks between sections, into all the things that remain unsaid."

--Brett Biebel, author of 48 Blitz

"How to Walk with Steve by Rob Fromberg is an inviting, conversational, and deeply personal portrait of a man's relationship with his brother across places and across time. Using small sections that can feel like standalone poems, Fromberg carefully crafts a resonant memoir about the challenges and obligations-and also the faith and love-that connect siblings through the years. Full of humor, honesty, and surprise, How to Walk with Steve is sure to succeed with nonfiction readers who appreciate unrelenting wit and candor."

--Scott Kenemore, author of Lake of Darkness

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