I can’t imagine the story outside the text of the story. Like, I can’t see further into the future and know if he and Lindsey get married, or if Hassan graduates from college, or if Colin ever becomes a genius.

All that stuff is for you to imagine, if you wish to.

There are many child prodigies who grow up to lead very ordinary lives; there are others who are paralyzed by their prodigious childhoods and never find their way in adulthood. And then there are prodigies like Norbert Weiner, who enjoy exceptionally productive adulthoods and get rooms at MIT named after them.

But I think by the end of the novel, Colin is measuring success a little differently than just seeking genius.

I’m a novelist, not a doctor, so I won’t attempt to diagnose any of my characters. But I was conscious of the way people on the autistic spectrum struggle to read certain social cues, and the way their brains process and store information.

Well he counts people he only held hands with, which to many of us would not constitute a full-fledged boyfriend-girlfriend type romantic relationship.