Love Will Save Us, Right? A Memoir

Partido discusses navigating food insecurity while caring for her neurodivergent son in her bluntly moving debut. After working for over two decades as the education director for a mental health organization, Partido retired to care for her autistic teenage son, who needed more attention than she’d been able to provide. While she considered the decision to be her “healthiest employment move” ever, it also proved financially disastrous, and her struggles to make ends meet took a toll on her son. Her efforts to manage “the shattering panic and doomsday dread that can explode if the kid gets the idea that scarcity is the only thing he’ll ever get more of” are wrenching, but she leavens the proceedings with sweet humor (“The food we prepare for our neurospicy citizen must be perceived as familiarly edible”). In the end, Partido scrounges together a convincing message of hope, asserting that, though “our world will continue to be populated with uncertainty, grief, and fear, I have it on good faith that we will never, ever be alone, and we will never be without help.” This raw look at the realities of poverty and caregiving will appeal to fans of Kate Swenson’s Forever Boy. (Oct.)