of people who speak fluently are often shocked when they meet someone whose speech stutters and halts. What's far more surprising, however, is how little most stutterers know about the condition despite living with it their entire lives: What causes it? Why does it sometimes get better, why does it sometimes get worse? Will it ever go away?

These interruptions to fluent speech may seem minor, but they can have a major impact on a person's life. Stutterers have endured the slings and arrows of doubt, insecurity, and rejection for millenia, but that doesn't need to be the case.

Modern academic research is demystifying how speech is produced in the brain, as well as how the brains of stutterers differ from those of their fluent peers. Even further, this research can be turned into a plan of action that stutterers can use to not only increase the fluency of their speech, but how often they speak. And for parents, this research offers clarity and guidance for the often sudden and unexpected appearance of stuttering in a child.

Rooted in his own experience as a stutterer, author Tom Lovett takes the reader on an extensive but accessible tour of this peculiar world that hides in plain sight.