• How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move?

  • Inside My Autistic Mind
  • By: Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay
  • Narrated by: Mark Ashby
  • Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (138 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move?  By  cover art

How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move?

By: Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay
Narrated by: Mark Ashby
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.95

Buy for $14.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Editorial reviews

Autism, in one form or another, is a disease that affects more than 1 in 15 Americans. A hereditary disorder, autism often influences the ability to communicate of those afflicted. In this stunning tell-all, Tito Rajarshi Mukhopdahyay offers a poetic and lucid window into the mind of someone struggling firsthand with autism. Emotional and jarring, Mark Ashby relates Tito's insightful words with uncommon poise and practiced grace. This book is a must for anyone who knows or loves someone coping with autism.

Publisher's summary

An astounding new work by the author of The Mind Tree that offers a rare insight into the autistic mind and how it thinks, sees, and reacts to the world.

When he was three years old, Tito was diagnosed as severely autistic, but his remarkable mother, Soma, determined that he would overcome the "problem" by teaching him to read and write. The result was that between the ages of eight and eleven he wrote stories and poems of exquisite beauty, which Dr. Oliver Sacks called "amazing and shocking". Their eloquence gave lie to all our assumptions about autism....

Here Tito goes even further and writes of how the autistic mind works, how it views the outside world and the "normal" people he deals with daily, how he tells his stories to the mirror and hears stories back, how sounds become colors, how beauty fills his mind and heart. With this work, Tito - whom Portia Iversen, co-founder of Cure Autism Now, has described as "a window into autism such as the world has never seen" - gives the world a beacon of hope. For if he can do it, why can't others?

©2008, 2011 Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move?

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    101
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    94
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    91
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful perspective on Autism from a non-speaking Autistic

A must read for anyone who wants to understand sensory differences and especially the challenges facing non-speaking autistics. This book should be required reading for anyone working with non-speakers as well. It is proof that non-speaking does not mean non-thinking. It’s a shame that Tito learned so little in school because his intellect was underestimated. How many kids are having this same experience in special Ed classrooms today?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing insight into a mind different from my own

Amazing insight into a mind different from my own. Reminds me not to assume I know what’s going on in another person’s mind, especially if that person’s neurology is very different from my own

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

The author has autism, and was nineteen at the time of his writing this book—his second! He is non-verbal, yet has an extraordinary grasp of the English language. He moved to America at age thirteen, having previously lived in India with his mother. At age three he was diagnosed with “severe autism.” This book is an engaging though baffling memoir. I describe it as baffling because most of his life experiences are so totally different than my own, or anyone I know (including my daughter who is also on the autism spectrum). His experiences making sense of the world are fascinating, if for no other reason than they are nearly unimaginable to those of us who are (so-called) neurotypical. A blurb written by the publisher says the book “offers a rare insight into the autistic mind and how it thinks, sees, and reacts to the world.” I personally think that description is overly broad: I believe the book offers insight into how THE AUTHOR thinks, sees, and reacts to the world.” And that’s what is so fascinating. Most of us think , see, and react in somewhat predictable ways, and end up conforming to patterns of thought and behavior of most other people. The beauty of his life experiences are their unpredictability no matter how unconventional they may seem to the rest of us. His approach(es) make perfect sense to him, and led him to develop a unique relationship with, and view of, the world. We must caution ourselves, though, that this is insight to only one person’s life experiences. The only legitimate generalization may be that we need to allow others the freedom to develop as individuals unconstrained by what we consider normal. (I read this the year it was published—2008–and am glad I took the time to reread it.)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Delightful

I have met autistic kids and I am related to autistic people but I didn’t know much about the spectrum until recently. I have always wondered why they flapped or stared or did anything else but what the rest of their peers were doing. It’s nice to know that a deep inner life is going on even if no words are spoken. It made me sad when I couldn’t understand or engage with them. I always knew that there had to be more to those individuals than what I’d heard. Tito has a beautiful style of writing and I loved his perspective. Keep writing Tito.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thank you Tito

As a mother to a nonspeaking boy on the Spectrum this was a roller coaster ride if emotions. Thank you Tito for giving me a possible peek into my son's mind. Everyone affected by nonspeaking ASD, should read this book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

See Tito's world through his senses

Deeply insightful and at times reading like what I imagine it would feel to read a painting, or the ocean, Tito's sensory experience moved through his stories into my body and shed light on how our human dependency on relationships impacts the neuro-divergent ecosystem that is Tito's being. So much gratitude for Tito's desire to be known and for the support those around him provided so the world would know his story.

This book is a must read for anyone curious to feel what it is like to be born nonverbal, and anyone interested in demystifying neuro-divergence.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing!!!!!

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!
The author skillfully encapsulate his experiences in a novel, heart lifting & edifying way!!
He Draws you into his perspective through artful poetic parts of speech that is alluring to the readers ear!!
A magnificent piece of auditory artwork!!!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!