The Way Things Look to Me

Book excerpt: My name is Yasmin Murphy, and I don't remember very much about the morning that my mother died, which is odd, as normally I remember everything. Everything. The Murphy family has never tried to be different; they just are. When Yasmin, the youngest sibling, was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, her older siblings learned to adapt to less attention and more responsibility, to a sister with "special abilities" that no one, not even they, could ever truly understand. And then there's the way Yasmin sees it: she sees music in color, and her mind remembers every tiny detail of every day until sometimes she wishes she could just forget. Since the deaths of their parents, the three siblings have become adults in their unique, tragic ways. Yasmin's differentness polarizes her siblings. Asif, the responsible oldest brother, has been left to take care of her by their middle sister Lila, the stubbornly rebellious beauty who resents Yasmin for her emotional distance, and for stealing their mother's love and attention. Now, Lila leads a wayward existence, drifting in and out of jobs and relationships, avoiding the home where she was raised and where Asif and Yasmin make their own brittle household. As Yasmin's committed caretaker, Asif is worn down. A young professional, he feels his freedom slipping away as he tries hard to keep the remains of their family together. When the unthinkable happens, threatening the Murphy siblings' delicate balance, and sweeping in the chaos they've spent their lives holding at bay, will they stand together or fall apart? The Way Things Look to Me is a deeply moving portrait of Brothers and Sisters, of three siblings caught between duty and love in a tangled relationship both bitter and bittersweet.