The Child
Fiona Barton, 2017
Penguin Publishing
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101990483
Summary
A brand-new novel of twisting psychological suspense.
As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers a tiny skeleton, buried for years.
For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who is the Building Site Baby?
As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss.
But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn—house by house—into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women—and torn between what she can and cannot tell. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1957
• Where—Cambridge, England, UK
• Education—N/A
• Awards—National Press Awards-Reporter of the Year
• Currently—lives in southwest France
Fiona Barton is a British journalist and novelist, born in Cambridge and now living in the southwest of France. She built a career in journalism: as senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday. It was while working for that paper that she won Britain's National Press Award for Reporter of the Year.
Then, toward the end of 2004, in a "light bulb moment" over bad Chinese food, Barton and her husband, Gary, wondered what it would take to change the direction of their lives. As she told the Daily Mail:
I was 48 and a journalist, a job I’d loved and succeeded in for 25 years—Gary, 52, was a builder with his own business. We had two adult children, mortgages and all the paraphernalia of a full working life. Yet the idea of volunteering was so powerful that I remember it made our teeth chatter with excitement. We did lots of research talked to our family and, three years later, applied to Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). It was both exhilarating and terrifying—we lived on £140 a month in a small flat, washing our clothes under a cold outside tap and coping with the occasional rat and cockroach. A year later [in 2008], we boarded a plane to Colombo in Sri Lanka to begin a two-year placement.
In Sri Lanka, Barton trained journalists facing exile and sometimes physical danger because of their work. Since then, she has worked with journalists from around the globe.
It was Barton's familiarity with news stories, however, that gave her ideas for novels she'd always hoped to write. Once liberated from the daily grind of deadlines, she was was able to turn to fiction. Her 2016 debut, The Widow, a story about a wife who suspects her husband of murder, became a bestseller and sold in 36 countries.
Next, in 2017, came The Child, which also grew out of a news story—the skeleton of a child discovered in a building site. Barton continues her writing, in the early morning, in bed, as she says on her website. Her only distraction is her noisy cockerel, Twitch. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
This being a Barton thriller, there’s more to pretty much everything than meets the eye.
Boston Globe
Fiona Barton has masterfully delivered again with The Child, her follow-up to her bestselling debut novel, The Widow....So many questions, so much perfect suspense….Barton tells the child’s story as only she can—brilliantly.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
[An] intriguing, twisty tale....With plenty of red herrings, nothing and no one is who they seem in this evocative puzzler.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
A twisty and tantalizing story you won't be able to put down.
Bustle
(Starred review.) Kate Waters, the catalyst for Barton’s devastating debut The Widow, returns in this strong if more subdued psychological thriller.… Readers patient with the relatively slow initial pace…will be rewarded with startling twists—and a stunning, emotionally satisfying conclusion.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Barton's second well-plotted outing, with its sustained tension and believable characters, is an excellent addition to the popular psychological thriller genre. Readers who liked Barton's first novel, Paula Hawkins's The Girl On a Train, and Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl will love this. —Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA
Library Journal
Barton flirts with melodrama at times but pulls back and allows her characters to develop into fully realized, deeply scarred women whose wounds aren't always visible. This is as much a why-dunit as a whodunit, with the real question being whether it's possible to heal and live with the truth after hiding behind a lie for so long.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How would you describe Emma and Jude’s relationship? Do you think Jude loves her daughter? Why or why not?
2. Do you think Kate plays a larger role in this book than she does in The Widow? How does her presence in the story affect how it unfolds? Why do you think this "cold case" investigation is so important to her initially, and does her motivation change over the course of the novel?
3. Several examples of victim blaming occur in the novel. For instance, in the initial kidnapping investigation, the police blame Angela for leaving her child alone in the hospital room. How does the book treat victim blaming? How might the story be different without it?
4. What is the role of journalism in the book? Like in The Widow, the media is inextricably linked with the police investigation. What do you think of Kate’s methods and involvement? Do you think the media help or hinder the police during crime investigations?
5. Discuss the theme of motherhood in the novel. Would you describe the women in the book as good mothers? Why or why not? How has motherhood affected each of the characters? How does it affect their interactions with each other?
6. Discuss Will’s character. Will is the only male character whose perspective is shown in the book. Do you think this is significant? Why do you think the author chose to include his perspective? How does it affect your feelings towards him?
7. Angela’s devastation over the loss of her child seeps into every aspect of her life, including her marriage and her relationship with her other children. Discuss the role of trauma and recovery, and how trauma can be passed down through generations.
8. Discuss the relationship between secrets and truth in this story. Almost all of the characters keep secrets. Whose actions are justified and whose are not? Use examples from the book to illustrate your points.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)