The Martian Child

A gay man adopts a troubled boy who insists he's a Martian in this charming and heartwarming autobiographical novel. When science fiction author David Gerrold decides he wants to adopt a son, he thinks he's prepared for fatherhood. But eight-year-old Dennis turns out to be more than he expected—a lot more. Abandoned as a baby in a seedy motel by his addict parents, Dennis suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome. Since then, he's been shuffled between eight different foster homes in less than eight years—and was severely abused in at least two of them.  Prone to violent emotional outbursts, Dennis was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, put on Ritalin, and then Disipramine. His case history identified him as "hard to plac""—a euphemism for "unadoptable." But for David Gerrold it was love at first sight . . .