The Children's Book_Byatt
2011 Longlist

The Children’s Book

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

When children’s book author Olive Wellwood’s oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of a museum, she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends. But the joyful bacchanals Olive hosts at her rambling country house—and the separate, private books she writes for each of her seven children—conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined. The Wellwoods’ personal struggles and hidden desires unravel against a breathtaking backdrop of the cliff-lined shores of England to Paris, Munich, and the trenches of the Somme, as the Edwardian period dissolves into World War I and Europe’s golden era comes to an end.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR A.S.
Byatt

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

A panoramic cavalcade through a quarter of a century of English history (Edwardian era). Social issues and private stories of a family & friends centred on Ms. Olive Wellwood, a writer of children’s stories.

The Children’s Book traces three English families through the artistic, political, and societal upheavals from the end of the Victorian Age to the devastation of World War I. it is a vast, multilayered and utterly absorbing novel.

A sweeping story of family, parenthood and the darker side of intimate relationships.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
England
Original Language
English
Author
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf, Knopf Canada

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