An after-school stroll leads to a life-altering event for widower Robert Dillon and his 12-year-old daughter, Nicky, in this delicate new novel by acclaimed author Shreve (All He Ever Wanted
,
etc.). In the woods surrounding their secluded home in Shepherd, N.H., Robert and Nicky make a startling discovery—a baby abandoned and left to die in the snow. The infant survives, but the incident leaves its mark. Still recovering from the painful loss of her mother and infant sister two years earlier, and readjusting to the shock of a sudden move from suburban Westchester to rural Shepherd, Nicky struggles to reconcile her innocent notions of adult integrity with the bleak reality of their discovery. The tenuous sense of normalcy Robert manages to sustain is broken with the appearance of Charlotte, the baby's young mother, on his doorstep. Retold 18 years later by an adult Nicky but written in the present tense, the story shifts brilliantly between childlike visions of a simple world and the growing realization of its cruel ambiguities. Aside from a few saccharine moments and a rather pat ending, Shreve does a skilled job of portraying grief, conflict and anger while leaving room for hope, redemption and renewal. Her characters are sympathetic without being pitiable, and her prose remains deceptively simple and eloquent throughout. Agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. (Oct. 12)
Details
Reviewed on: 09/20/2004
Genre: Fiction
Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-58621-638-2
Compact Disc - 978-1-60024-102-4
Compact Disc - 978-1-58621-637-5
Downloadable Audio - 978-1-60024-875-7
Hardcover - 368 pages - 978-0-316-00071-0
Mass Market Paperbound - 282 pages - 978-0-316-01428-1
Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-316-06671-6
Open Ebook - 978-0-7595-1278-8
Open Ebook - 139 pages - 978-0-316-14563-3
Other - 978-0-316-01507-3
Other - 978-0-7595-1277-1
Other - 978-0-7595-1276-4
Paperback - 336 pages - 978-0-316-01067-2
Paperback - 978-0-316-06666-2
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 978-0-7595-1279-5
Prebound-Sewn - 304 pages - 978-0-7569-7327-8
