To Have or to be?

John Richardson, a "tall" person, has always been fascinated by the dwarf world and, in the course of researching a piece for "Esquire" magazine, came to realize he was doing much more than simply documenting the lives of a few quirky characters. He was entering another world, a sub-culture that has long been the subject of a peculiar fascination to many people, but much misunderstood. As he says "Dwarfs are like us but more so, as if the process of distilling humanity to fit their size also made it stronger". At the centre of the book is Dr Steven Kopits of Johns Hopkins University, a doctor who has dedicated his life to the treatment of dwarfs, and who has been shunned by the medical community as a result. Dr Kopits has offered Richardson complete access to himself and his patients and the heart of the book tells the love story of two dwarfs, Michael and Meredith. By weaving these threads together, Richardson, the tall outsider entering this "little" world, aims to redefine the way we look at dwarfs, at others who live on the margins of society, and, ultimately, at ourselves.