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The sequel to The Rosie Project, which I loved immensely. Now living in New York, where Don is an associate at Columbia and Rosie is studying for medical and psychological degrees, the couple's relationship hits its first challenge, in the form of Rosie's unplanned pregnancy. Rosie begins to suspect that Don's spectrum mind will preclude him from attaching to the baby or being a good father; the arrival of philanderer Gene, thrown out by his wife, to come live in their apartment only adds strain. Add to that the usual mix-ups due to Don's tone-deaf, literal nature (he's picked up as a suspected pedophile and forced to attend anger management classes, not to mention an incident on an airplane), and Rosie is suddenly seeing no other options but to leave for Australia, and leave Don in the process.

I had mixed feelings about this book, but in the end decided to rate it five stars. Both of these impressions result from the fact that I enjoy and feel for the characters so much. At first, I took Rosie's decision to leave Don personally, outraged that she should be treating this good, patient Aspie so poorly. But that's just a result of Simsion's writing skills. We're seeing the events through Don's eyes, not Rosie's, and from her standpoint there's a lot to worry about. Also, as we come to be reminded, Rosie has a shaky psyche from family trauma, and her deceptions in the book are understandable. This is another brilliant book, capable of hilarity via Don's occasional lack of social subtlety (one of my favorite lines comes near the end when a social worker says Don helped clear up her prejudices, meaning about people on the spectrum, and he assumes she's referring to an argument they had about sustainable fish). Yet, in the next paragraph, the book mines deep pathos from the communication gap. It's a book full of humor and heart and humanity.