Golden Child: A Novel

by Claire Adam Narrated by Obi Abili

Overview

A*deeply affecting debut novel set in Trinidad, following the lives of a family as they navigate impossible choices about scarcity, loyalty, and love

WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE ¿*“Golden Child*is a stunning novel written with force and beauty.* Though true to herself, Adam's work stands tall beside icons of her tradition like V.S. Naipaul.”-Jennifer Clement, author of*Gun Love

Rural Trinidad: a brick house on stilts surrounded by bush; a family, quietly surviving, just trying to live a decent life. Clyde, the father, works long, exhausting shifts at the petroleum plant in southern Trinidad; Joy, his wife, looks after the home. Their two sons, thirteen years old, wake early every morning to travel to the capital, Port of Spain, for school. They are twins but nothing alike: Paul has always been considered odd,*while*Peter is widely believed to be a genius, destined for greatness.

When*Paul goes walking in the bush one afternoon and doesn't come home, Clyde is forced to go looking for him, this child who has caused him endless trouble already, and who he has never really understood. And as the hours turn to days, and Clyde begins to understand Paul's fate, his world shatters-leaving him faced with a decision no parent should ever have to make.

Like the Trinidadian landscape itself, Golden Child*is both beautiful and unsettling, a resoundingly human story of aspiration, betrayal, and love.

Praise for Golden Child

“In fluid and uncluttered prose, Golden Child weaves an enveloping portrait of an insular social order in which the claustrophobic support of family and neighbors coexists with an omnipresent threat from the same corners.”-The*New York Times*Book Review

“[A] powerful debut . . . a devastating family portrait-and a fascinating window into Trinidadian society.”-People

“[An] emotionally potent debut novel . . . with a spare, evocative style, Adam (a Trinidad native) evokes the island's complexity during the mid-'80s, when the novel is mostly set: the tenuous relationship between Hindus like Clyde's family and the twins' Catholic schoolmaster, assassinations and abductions hyped by lurid media headlines, resources that attract carpetbagging oil companies but leave the country largely impoverished.”-USA Today

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Advance Praise for Golden Child:

“Golden Child is a stunning novel written with force and beauty.  Though true to herself, Adam's work stands tall beside icons of her tradition like V.S. Naipaul.”—Jennifer Clement, author of Gun Love

“Golden Child swells with wisdom about masculinity, family, violence and sacrifice. I read it in a sitting, gripping the pages, nails chewed down by the final word. An intense, heart-breaking debut.”—Daniel Magariel, author of One of the Boys

“The characters in Golden Child are so completely real that I keep forgetting that their home is the page; they seem to breathe and think on their own. This is a devastating, wonderful book, and I can't help but wait impatiently for whatever Claire Adam writes next.” – Sara Taylor, author of The Lauras

“Utterly convincing, horrifying and, ultimately, intensely moving, it’s almost impossible to believe this small masterpiece is a first novel. Adam is a true and rare talent. I’m in awe.”—Julie Myerson, author of The Stopped Heart

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172198274
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	01/29/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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