cover image Two Old Men and a Baby

Two Old Men and a Baby

Hendrik Groen, trans. from the Dutch by Hester Velmans. Grand Central, $16.99 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-1-5387-5352-1

Groen (On the Bright Side) once again follows a zany elderly friendship in this disappointing outing. Septuagenarians Hendrik and Evert are old friends with a standing date to play chess at Hendrick’s apartment. When Evert gets caught in the rain on his way there one day, he ducks into a school where a Christmas program is taking place and finds a baby girl—who is supposed to be Baby Jesus in the play—sleeping in a stroller in the bathroom. Impulsively deciding to take the baby with him to Hendrick’s, Evert sets off a chain of chaos, with school and local authorities frantic to find the missing girl. As Hendrick and Evert try to return her without being caught, a nosy neighbor and an opportunistic sanitation worker pretending to be the kidnapper insert themselves in the situation. Unfortunately, the loose plotting falls apart early, and Evert’s choice to kidnap a baby, presented as a lark with no explanation, will befuddle readers. Add in paper-thin secondary characters—including police, school administrators, and casual observers only concerned about how the missing baby scandal could affect them—and there’s very little here to hook readers. This feels more like a pile of errors than a comedy of them. (June)