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The Stolen Child
An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate in this moving, page-turning novel from “a gifted storyteller” ( People ). For decades, Nick Burns has been haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, when a French artist he’d befriended thrust both her paintings and her baby into his hands―and disappeared. In 1974, with only months left to live, Nick enlists Jenny, a college dropout desperate for adventure, to help him unravel the mystery. The journey leads them from Paris galleries and provincial towns to a surprising the Museum of Tears, the life’s work of a lonely Italian craftsman. Determined to find the baby and the artist, hopeless romantic Jenny and curmudgeonly Nick must reckon with regret, betrayal, and the lives they’ve left behind. With characteristic warmth and verve, Ann Hood captures a world of possibility and romance through the eyes of a young woman learning to claim her place in it. The Stolen Child is an engaging, timeless novel of secrets, love lost and found, and the nature of forgiveness.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2024
About the author
Ann Hood
67 books1,114 followersAnn Hood is the editor of Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting and the bestselling author of The Book That Matters Most, The Knitting Circle, The Red Thread, Comfort, and An Italian Wife, among other works. She is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, a Best American Food Writing Award, a Best American Travel Writing Award, and the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
April 28, 2024
A story to keep the reader guessing until very close to the end. Multiple characters whose stories start separately end up intertwining when curmudgeon Nick, a dying WW I veteran, places an ad for someone to help him solve a problem that has bothered him for close to 60 years.
Jennifer is a young college dropout working at an IHOP answers the ad. Soon, despite Nick's concerns, the two are off to France to see if they can find out what happened to a woman and a baby that Nick met at the end of the war.
Beautiful writing unveil a beautiful story strong of emotional tugs and ties. A few periphery characters move in and out of the story, but all story lines merge at the end for an edifying finish.
Since there is a scattering of French and Italian phrases, depending on where the detective work takes Nick and Jennifer, I was thrilled that even after more than 50 years, my three years of high school French are still functional.
Jennifer is a young college dropout working at an IHOP answers the ad. Soon, despite Nick's concerns, the two are off to France to see if they can find out what happened to a woman and a baby that Nick met at the end of the war.
Beautiful writing unveil a beautiful story strong of emotional tugs and ties. A few periphery characters move in and out of the story, but all story lines merge at the end for an edifying finish.
Since there is a scattering of French and Italian phrases, depending on where the detective work takes Nick and Jennifer, I was thrilled that even after more than 50 years, my three years of high school French are still functional.
February 4, 2024
An incredible story of an American soldier in France during WWI who was entrusted with an infant as the mother ran from the Nazis.
More to come.
More to come.
January 17, 2024
Hood's book has history, beautiful landscapes, and well-developed characters. The story is complex but reads easily and smooth. I rarely love historical fiction, but this worked for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
May 22, 2024
When Nick Burns served his country in WWI. A French Artist he befriended left him with a loaf of bread and a baby boy wrapped in a blanket. She called the baby Laurent. He left the baby near a well in the center of town. The Artist also gave Nick a number of her paintings that were so brilliant in color, they were so unusual.
Nick was old and didn't have much longer to live. He paced an ad in the paper wanting a young person
to travel with him to Italy to help him find the baby now a grown man.
Jenny answered the ad wanting to travel. They traveled all over Italy looking for Laurent.
Nick had to leave Italy because of his failing health.
Jenny was able to find Laurent. He was known as Lorenzo and Enzo for short
Jenny called Nick with the good news.
He wanted Jenny to keep his suitcase. The lost paintings were in the suitcase.
Jenny decided to stay in Italy. Making it her new home.
Nick was old and didn't have much longer to live. He paced an ad in the paper wanting a young person
to travel with him to Italy to help him find the baby now a grown man.
Jenny answered the ad wanting to travel. They traveled all over Italy looking for Laurent.
Nick had to leave Italy because of his failing health.
Jenny was able to find Laurent. He was known as Lorenzo and Enzo for short
Jenny called Nick with the good news.
He wanted Jenny to keep his suitcase. The lost paintings were in the suitcase.
Jenny decided to stay in Italy. Making it her new home.
May 14, 2024
THE STOLEN CHILD by Ann Hood
4.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the audiobook of this gorgeously written work of secrets long buried in the trenches of World War I, by Ann Hood. This is a historical fiction, mystery and romance read.
Narration by Jefferson Mays was well done.
How a one time chance encounter and a decision made can haunt you for a lifetime; exactly what happens to soldier, Nick Burns in 1917 at the young age of nineteen during World War I. A French artist, Camille Chastain, thrusts her paintings in one bundle and a baby in another bundle into Nick’s hands —- and flees.
The story moves to 1974 and curmudgeonly Nick, who has a terminal illness, and his hopeless romantic assistant, Jessica, travel to France and Italy to try and unravel the mystery of this child.
I enjoyed the writing of Ann Hood in this novel. This is my first read from her.
4.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the audiobook of this gorgeously written work of secrets long buried in the trenches of World War I, by Ann Hood. This is a historical fiction, mystery and romance read.
Narration by Jefferson Mays was well done.
How a one time chance encounter and a decision made can haunt you for a lifetime; exactly what happens to soldier, Nick Burns in 1917 at the young age of nineteen during World War I. A French artist, Camille Chastain, thrusts her paintings in one bundle and a baby in another bundle into Nick’s hands —- and flees.
The story moves to 1974 and curmudgeonly Nick, who has a terminal illness, and his hopeless romantic assistant, Jessica, travel to France and Italy to try and unravel the mystery of this child.
I enjoyed the writing of Ann Hood in this novel. This is my first read from her.
April 4, 2024
I absolutely loved this book! This is the story of Nick a soldier in World War I who was given a baby by a local woman to take care of as the war encroached their tiny village in Italy. Jump ahead to 1974 when Nick invites Jenny a young college dropout to accompany him to Italy to finally find out what happened to the baby! This was a marvelously told story with wonderful characters and excellent descriptions of the cities in Italy and France. I highly recommend this book!
May 15, 2024
This is the best book that I've read in a long time. It has so many things that I like in book...historical fiction, rich character development, mystery, travel descriptions and it tackled many emotions. These characters explored feelings of regret, grief, guilt, delaying living the life you dream of, love, betrayal, friendship, etc. Since I love travel too, I enjoyed hearing about places in Italy and France and thinking how it would feel to travel in the 1970s. I know that this story and characters will stay with me for awhile.
I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator was a perfect fit. His French and Italian accents really added to my enjoyment of this book and set the mood.
Deepest thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for providing me with this audiobook ARC. All opinions are my own and were provided willingly.
I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator was a perfect fit. His French and Italian accents really added to my enjoyment of this book and set the mood.
Deepest thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for providing me with this audiobook ARC. All opinions are my own and were provided willingly.
May 14, 2024
Nick, an American soldier in the trenches during WWI, befriends a local woman who shares his love of art. With the Germans approaching, Camille gives Nick her baby and a bundle of her artwork and flees. Fast forward the 1974, Nick is dying and racked with grief over the unknown fate of this woman and baby. Along with the help of Jenny, a college drop-out who yearns for more from life, the unlikely duo set out for France and later Italy to try to find the child. I enjoyed the evolving friendship between Nick and Jenny along the way as well as what each of them learned about themselves.
With a lot of French and Italian used, the audiobook enabled to move through that easily instead of stumbling over the unfamiliar written words.
Many thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for this ALC.
With a lot of French and Italian used, the audiobook enabled to move through that easily instead of stumbling over the unfamiliar written words.
Many thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for this ALC.
May 14, 2024
3. when I started this novel, I was totally hooked. That faded all too quickly. I really wasn’t interested in a French or Italian travel log. Characters were superficially developed in my opinion.
April 1, 2024
*Thank you to Book Browse and W. W. Norton for this great read!
5.0
Entrust, mystery, unravel…
The Stolen Child has several storylines:
1917- American soldier Nick Burns is in a trench on a French farm. He paints a mural on the trench wall while waiting for the Germans to arrive. Camille, who lives on the farm with her husband, gives Nick her newborn baby and some of her personal paintings, saying, “Save them.”
1935-1970s - Enzo and his brother Massimo are craftsmen in Naples, Italy, specializing in Nativities.
1973 - Rhode Island IHOP waitress Jenny loves everything Italy. She answers an ad to accompany a dying man, Nick Burns, to France “to look for a baby.” Except now this “baby” would be approximately 60 years old!
A tale of doubt, decisions with long-term consequences, secrets, regrets, fate, and forgiveness. What happened to a vanished artist and an abandoned baby?
AVAILABLE May 7, 2024
THOUGHTS:
* I knew on page 1 that I was going to like this book! I read it in one day! This will likely be in my top reads for 2024!
*A WWI story that doesn’t dwell on the war. This story is definitely a well-developed character-driven story.
*So descriptive, starting on page 1 when recounting Enzo & his Nativities.
*This is such an ageless story! The Stolen Child was definitely a page-turner. I couldn’t wait to learn Nick’s story!
*A spellbinding story; heart-wrenching at times.
*I have not read this author before but will be checking her backlist .
5.0
Entrust, mystery, unravel…
The Stolen Child has several storylines:
1917- American soldier Nick Burns is in a trench on a French farm. He paints a mural on the trench wall while waiting for the Germans to arrive. Camille, who lives on the farm with her husband, gives Nick her newborn baby and some of her personal paintings, saying, “Save them.”
1935-1970s - Enzo and his brother Massimo are craftsmen in Naples, Italy, specializing in Nativities.
1973 - Rhode Island IHOP waitress Jenny loves everything Italy. She answers an ad to accompany a dying man, Nick Burns, to France “to look for a baby.” Except now this “baby” would be approximately 60 years old!
A tale of doubt, decisions with long-term consequences, secrets, regrets, fate, and forgiveness. What happened to a vanished artist and an abandoned baby?
AVAILABLE May 7, 2024
THOUGHTS:
* I knew on page 1 that I was going to like this book! I read it in one day! This will likely be in my top reads for 2024!
*A WWI story that doesn’t dwell on the war. This story is definitely a well-developed character-driven story.
*So descriptive, starting on page 1 when recounting Enzo & his Nativities.
*This is such an ageless story! The Stolen Child was definitely a page-turner. I couldn’t wait to learn Nick’s story!
*A spellbinding story; heart-wrenching at times.
*I have not read this author before but will be checking her backlist .
February 27, 2024
Ann Hood develops such in-depth characters that draw me in right away. I always look forward to her books. Nick Burns struggles with a decision he made years ago in World War 1. With only a few months to live, Nick enlists the help of Jenny to return to the the area he was during the war and unravel a mystery of what happened to a baby left in his care. I was intrigued from the start but found the middle a little slow. Hate to say I did a little skimming. But all in all I truly enjoyed this book. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
May 14, 2024
This historical novel starts in 1917, with young American soldier Nick in France during WWI, when with the Germans approaching, a local French woman hands him two precious pundit’s and Asha him to save them - one, with her paintings, and one with her baby. Panicking in his own attempt to escape, Nick leaves the baby in a nearby village. Cut to 1974, when Nick discovers he is dying, and haunted by his lifelong guilt, decides to try to track down the fate of both the baby and the woman. Also in 1974, we see the perspective of Jenny, a young woman whose life has derailed from her plans, and answers Nick’s ad for someone to help him and travel with him. (We also see Nick and Jenny through prior periods of their life.) Finally, we also see the perspective of a man named Enzo in Italy from the 1930s through the 1970s, including as he creates his Museum of Tears.
This book really has its own unique vibe - it’s quiet and melancholy, yet really kept me reading to see what would happen and how it would affect the characters. It also is a lovely travelogue to France and Italy. And I also loved the descriptions of art woven throughout.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy; all opinions are my own.
This book really has its own unique vibe - it’s quiet and melancholy, yet really kept me reading to see what would happen and how it would affect the characters. It also is a lovely travelogue to France and Italy. And I also loved the descriptions of art woven throughout.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy; all opinions are my own.
May 8, 2024
Just an exquisitely beautiful story. A soldier in World War I France (Nick) is given a baby by a local woman who is escaping the approaching German army. Decades later, in 1974, Nick learns he has only a few months to live and finds himself teaming up with Jenny, a college dropout, to accompany him to France and Italy to learn what happened to the baby. Told from alternating viewpoints and timelines, but done so in a way that's very effective and easy to follow, allowing you to really come to know and love each character inside and out. Beautiful descriptions of all the locales, as well, and I just love Ann Hood's writing style - something about it makes me feel like being wrapped up in a warm blanket.
May 14, 2024
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ An intriguing and poignant story that is at times, complex. It’s of a man on a quest to find someone, and the girl who helps him. Here’s to self discovery, gratitude, and new beginnings. This, is their journey across France and Italy to fulfill Nick’s dying wish.
Nick, is a war veteran who has cancer and 6 months to live. He must return to France before he dies but, he can’t go alone due to his weak condition. He needs someone to go with him. So, he writes up a job listing. Jenny is a dreamer and a doer. Stuck in a dead end job at the local iHop, she yearns for a better life. Curious, she inquires.
During the war, a woman in desperation, handed him a child swaddled in a blanket and then she ran off. Nick was only 19. Not knowing what to do, he left the bundle in the town square, near the well. Nick knew whoever found the baby would give him a good life. But, he’s always wondered what ever became of that baby. This has haunted Nick for years.
The narrator, Jefferson Mays, does a great job conveying the characters’ stories. His intonations pair well with the story line, keeping the flow on point. I found it really enabled me to have a connection with the characters. Additionally, he does a great job with French and Italian accents!
Story well told.
👏🏼Special thanks to RB Media for this advanced reader copy and to @annhood56 for writing a wonderful novel.
Nick, is a war veteran who has cancer and 6 months to live. He must return to France before he dies but, he can’t go alone due to his weak condition. He needs someone to go with him. So, he writes up a job listing. Jenny is a dreamer and a doer. Stuck in a dead end job at the local iHop, she yearns for a better life. Curious, she inquires.
During the war, a woman in desperation, handed him a child swaddled in a blanket and then she ran off. Nick was only 19. Not knowing what to do, he left the bundle in the town square, near the well. Nick knew whoever found the baby would give him a good life. But, he’s always wondered what ever became of that baby. This has haunted Nick for years.
The narrator, Jefferson Mays, does a great job conveying the characters’ stories. His intonations pair well with the story line, keeping the flow on point. I found it really enabled me to have a connection with the characters. Additionally, he does a great job with French and Italian accents!
Story well told.
👏🏼Special thanks to RB Media for this advanced reader copy and to @annhood56 for writing a wonderful novel.
May 12, 2024
This had the potential to be such a good story. But the male main character keeps passing out every chapter and the female main character flits around after different boys each chapter and I grew tired of that. It eventually felt like a hot mess.
May 20, 2024
A beautiful and immersive story, threading timelines, that had me thinking of it when I wasn't reading. THE STOLEN CHILD will let you travel and taste and imagine other places. And the Museum of Tears touched my heart and made me wish I could visit it. Another hit from Ann Hood. Brava!
April 3, 2024
Nick Burns is elderly and dying, and finds himself driven to return to Europe where he made the mistake which has colored his life since World War I. He was in a combat trench in France when he was befriended by the woman in a nearby farmhouse. When the Italians came, the woman thrust her artwork and her baby into Nick's arms to save. Nick abandons the baby in the village square hoping that someone will have heard his cries and rescued him. Now in the 1970s, Nick enlists college dropout Jenny to come to Italy and France with him to unravel the story of what happened to the baby. In Naples, we meet a lonely craftsman named Enzo, who is amassing a museum of tears; his story converges with Nick and Jenny's as their time in Europe comes to an end. This is a story about love, forgiveness, and transformation, and I could not put it down.
February 23, 2024
To many regrets for a dying man. O human child, to the waters and the wild something, something. For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.
For sixty years Nick had wondered about a fork on the road that took place in World War I. In the trenches, Nick to keep his mind sane, drew pictures on the walls of the trenches. It is this act that compelled a young woman to give him her baby. She also was an upcoming artist herself. Maybe that is why she was drawn to him and asked him to take her baby to safety. However, what he did was take the baby and leave it at a village well. Nick was haunted by this decision. It affected his marriage after the war and left him with many regrets. He knows his life his short so he hires a young woman Jenny to go with him to Europe to find out what happened to the mother and the baby.
One of my favorites in a read is the ironies. This is a compelling story of regret, redemption, and renewal. The ironies bring the plot and the characters together. It is not neatly tied in a bow which makes it unforgettable. I finished it last week and I am still thinking about it. Bravo bravo.
Nicely done.
A special thank you to WW Norton and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
For sixty years Nick had wondered about a fork on the road that took place in World War I. In the trenches, Nick to keep his mind sane, drew pictures on the walls of the trenches. It is this act that compelled a young woman to give him her baby. She also was an upcoming artist herself. Maybe that is why she was drawn to him and asked him to take her baby to safety. However, what he did was take the baby and leave it at a village well. Nick was haunted by this decision. It affected his marriage after the war and left him with many regrets. He knows his life his short so he hires a young woman Jenny to go with him to Europe to find out what happened to the mother and the baby.
One of my favorites in a read is the ironies. This is a compelling story of regret, redemption, and renewal. The ironies bring the plot and the characters together. It is not neatly tied in a bow which makes it unforgettable. I finished it last week and I am still thinking about it. Bravo bravo.
Nicely done.
A special thank you to WW Norton and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
May 16, 2024
Broken hearts and second chances (Naples, Amalfi Coast cities, Rome, Tuscany, Italy; Paris and the French countryside; Rhode Island, US from 1917 to 1974): “How many tears have I shed in my lifetime?” Ann Hood poignantly questions in the acknowledgements of her newest novel, The Stolen Child.
Her tears and those of her three characters, expressed or repressed, evoke the 19th century poetic tears of Ireland’s famous Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats’ poem The Stolen Child, cited in the novel and presumably inspired Hood’s title: “For the world’s more full of weeping/Than you can understand.”
Hood doesn’t just write what she knows. She also writes what she misses and loves.
The multiple-award winning author’s tears come from a deep place in her heart, having lost her daughter Gracie when she was five. That grief and sorrow, coupled with finding the strength and determination to move forward are a thread you’ll see in this novel and her other writings. The result is a soulful novel that’s both sad and beautiful you’ll settle into. The prose flows with what ifs, what once was, and what still could be.
Atmospheric, nostalgic, cultural, and historical, at its heart is an emotional story centered on three characters we follow over half a century in three countries on two continents. One is young (Jenny), one old (Nick), and the third ages through the decades (Enzo). You’ll find yourself wondering how three disparate protagonists introduced in 1917 (Nick), 1935 (Enzo), and 1974 (Jenny) connect. How Hood creates ways for her memories, passions, and interests to intersect. There’s a mystery in the plot (Nick’s), and a mystery in the timeline plotting (Enzo).
One quality all three have in common becomes apparent from their early beginnings is how lonely they are. Each broken-hearted for different reasons.
Nick and Jenny connect early on, since the plot revolves around Nick’s WWI story of making a “life-or-death decision” in the heat of battle that’s soon fast-forwarded to Jenny’s timeline. As for Enzo, you’ll be scratching your head how he links up until you near the end.
Inspired by truths and three of Hood’s interests in history, art, and travel, specifically WWI and trench art, also French women painters (Nick’ story); Naples, Italy and its centuries-old tradition of Nativity scenes and carved figurines Hood collects that are part of Enzo’s story; and Jenny’s dreams of traveling the world, starting with Pompeii and Naples, “a crumbling city on a glistening bay with Vesuvius looming above it.”
Nick is an exceptionally remorseful character who at seventy-six says he “hates people.” What he really hates is how he can’t undo a decision he made during WWI in a trench dug into the land of a farmhouse outside Paris. What he hates is how he let his guilt and shame eat away at him, destroying his life and marriage. We see he needed therapy for his PTSD revealed over the years, shell shock as they called it back then.
Jenny is the character who wants to “be something,” having also made a bad decision that cut short her dreams.
Enzo is the “master craftsman of presepe,” the Nativity tradition that originated in Naples, later including all sorts of non-religious carvings of celebrities, historical figures, pop culture stars, and everyday Neapolitans, such as “sausage makers and pizza chefs and vintners.” We can’t help but be curious if the author owns the likeness of Humphrey Bogart, Mickey Mantle, Mario Lanza, and many others.
As for the hearts in the story: Enzo spends much of his life not “knowing how to talk to women” and yet he’s deeply affected by female emotions of sadness and joy. Nick awakens too late in life to the revelation that he misses the “human touch.” Jenny becomes touched by both. And we’re touched by Hood’s prose.
Hood’s memories of Naples are a feast for armchair travelers, foodies, and history buffs. Jenny works the night shift at an IHOP in Providence, Rhode Island, Hood also remembers. A perfect set-up for the mocking and drunkenness of the Brown University students, frequent customers, reminding her of her lost academic dreams. “How many pancakes would she have to serve before she earned enough tips to get herself out of here?” she asks despairingly.
Hood also likes poetry, seen too in Jenny’s secondary storyline when she serves a male customer so unlike the others: Daniel obsessed with Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. She’s a fan of Emily Dickenson and Robert Frost. Daniel adds another mystery to the travel adventure she embarks on, answering Nick’s urgent plea for an assistant to accompany him to France without knowing why. How could she not be overly eager to want the job? What she doesn’t know is the reason for the urgency. We do, from the opening.
“Funny how at the end of your life you understand so much but can’t undo any of it,” Nick reflects.
The point is answered in this wise and insightful story, in which we feel good witnessing the relationship between an ornery Nick and bursting-with-enthusiasm Jenny evolve.
There’s a line in Enzo’s story that’s says a lot about his character, and the others. It happens in 1962, when he tells his boy-crazed niece that “I don’t know the ways of the heart,” but what he does know is “those things are tempting, but other traits, like loyalty and honor, matter more in the end.”
Hoods’ novel asks us a lot of questions: “How do you know “You’ve made the right decision?” What do you do when your dreams fall apart? How do you move on from traumatic grief and sorrow?
Two other lessons are seen. One is what young people can teach someone older. That it might not be too late to seek salvation, and that by giving you might reap benefits too.
The other fast-forwards us to today. Nick, “the last WWI vet in the country” as of 1974 was so sure that after the Great War “men would never do this to each other again.” Think of all the tears shed because he was wrong.
Her tears and those of her three characters, expressed or repressed, evoke the 19th century poetic tears of Ireland’s famous Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats’ poem The Stolen Child, cited in the novel and presumably inspired Hood’s title: “For the world’s more full of weeping/Than you can understand.”
Hood doesn’t just write what she knows. She also writes what she misses and loves.
The multiple-award winning author’s tears come from a deep place in her heart, having lost her daughter Gracie when she was five. That grief and sorrow, coupled with finding the strength and determination to move forward are a thread you’ll see in this novel and her other writings. The result is a soulful novel that’s both sad and beautiful you’ll settle into. The prose flows with what ifs, what once was, and what still could be.
Atmospheric, nostalgic, cultural, and historical, at its heart is an emotional story centered on three characters we follow over half a century in three countries on two continents. One is young (Jenny), one old (Nick), and the third ages through the decades (Enzo). You’ll find yourself wondering how three disparate protagonists introduced in 1917 (Nick), 1935 (Enzo), and 1974 (Jenny) connect. How Hood creates ways for her memories, passions, and interests to intersect. There’s a mystery in the plot (Nick’s), and a mystery in the timeline plotting (Enzo).
One quality all three have in common becomes apparent from their early beginnings is how lonely they are. Each broken-hearted for different reasons.
Nick and Jenny connect early on, since the plot revolves around Nick’s WWI story of making a “life-or-death decision” in the heat of battle that’s soon fast-forwarded to Jenny’s timeline. As for Enzo, you’ll be scratching your head how he links up until you near the end.
Inspired by truths and three of Hood’s interests in history, art, and travel, specifically WWI and trench art, also French women painters (Nick’ story); Naples, Italy and its centuries-old tradition of Nativity scenes and carved figurines Hood collects that are part of Enzo’s story; and Jenny’s dreams of traveling the world, starting with Pompeii and Naples, “a crumbling city on a glistening bay with Vesuvius looming above it.”
Nick is an exceptionally remorseful character who at seventy-six says he “hates people.” What he really hates is how he can’t undo a decision he made during WWI in a trench dug into the land of a farmhouse outside Paris. What he hates is how he let his guilt and shame eat away at him, destroying his life and marriage. We see he needed therapy for his PTSD revealed over the years, shell shock as they called it back then.
Jenny is the character who wants to “be something,” having also made a bad decision that cut short her dreams.
Enzo is the “master craftsman of presepe,” the Nativity tradition that originated in Naples, later including all sorts of non-religious carvings of celebrities, historical figures, pop culture stars, and everyday Neapolitans, such as “sausage makers and pizza chefs and vintners.” We can’t help but be curious if the author owns the likeness of Humphrey Bogart, Mickey Mantle, Mario Lanza, and many others.
As for the hearts in the story: Enzo spends much of his life not “knowing how to talk to women” and yet he’s deeply affected by female emotions of sadness and joy. Nick awakens too late in life to the revelation that he misses the “human touch.” Jenny becomes touched by both. And we’re touched by Hood’s prose.
Hood’s memories of Naples are a feast for armchair travelers, foodies, and history buffs. Jenny works the night shift at an IHOP in Providence, Rhode Island, Hood also remembers. A perfect set-up for the mocking and drunkenness of the Brown University students, frequent customers, reminding her of her lost academic dreams. “How many pancakes would she have to serve before she earned enough tips to get herself out of here?” she asks despairingly.
Hood also likes poetry, seen too in Jenny’s secondary storyline when she serves a male customer so unlike the others: Daniel obsessed with Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. She’s a fan of Emily Dickenson and Robert Frost. Daniel adds another mystery to the travel adventure she embarks on, answering Nick’s urgent plea for an assistant to accompany him to France without knowing why. How could she not be overly eager to want the job? What she doesn’t know is the reason for the urgency. We do, from the opening.
“Funny how at the end of your life you understand so much but can’t undo any of it,” Nick reflects.
The point is answered in this wise and insightful story, in which we feel good witnessing the relationship between an ornery Nick and bursting-with-enthusiasm Jenny evolve.
There’s a line in Enzo’s story that’s says a lot about his character, and the others. It happens in 1962, when he tells his boy-crazed niece that “I don’t know the ways of the heart,” but what he does know is “those things are tempting, but other traits, like loyalty and honor, matter more in the end.”
Hoods’ novel asks us a lot of questions: “How do you know “You’ve made the right decision?” What do you do when your dreams fall apart? How do you move on from traumatic grief and sorrow?
Two other lessons are seen. One is what young people can teach someone older. That it might not be too late to seek salvation, and that by giving you might reap benefits too.
The other fast-forwards us to today. Nick, “the last WWI vet in the country” as of 1974 was so sure that after the Great War “men would never do this to each other again.” Think of all the tears shed because he was wrong.
January 20, 2024
Took a while to get good, like halfway through I started liking it. Saw the "twist" coming from the start
May 19, 2024
In a trench dug in the French countryside during World War I, a young American solider named Nick Burns tries to deal with the horrors through art. During the anxious quiet moments in combat, he paints a picture on the walls of the trench. It’s a scene of home and the people he misses most, bisected with the image of the Charles River. When a shadow moves across his work, and a voice comments on his mural, his life changes even more dramatically.
The shadow and the voice belong to Camille Chastain, a very pregnant woman and an artist herself on whose property the trench is dug. Nick falls in love with Camille over the course of their brief conversations. Then, as the Germans approach the battlefield, Camille hands over precious items to Nick for safekeeping. This moment of fraught and not exactly welcomed gifting sets in motion the physical and emotional action in Ann Hood’s latest novel, THE STOLEN CHILD.
When Camille decides to flee the Germans, she leaves Nick her newborn son and a few small paintings. She asks that he get her baby to safety. However, Nick leaves the child without waiting to ensure that he will be taken care of; over the decades, this decision haunts him. In 1974, an elderly and dying Nick resolves to find the baby and enlists the help of Jenny, a young college dropout working as a waitress and mourning some losses of her own.
Nick and Jenny head to France and then to Italy, with very little information to go on, to try to discover the fate of Camille’s son. In their travels, they begin to heal wounds and find a sense of peace about the choices they have made and the relationships they have had and lost. Jenny’s optimism and enthusiasm don’t get rid of Nick’s pessimistic grumpiness, but they do alter it, and the two work well together. They are accompanied by Charlie Reynolds, a romantic tour guide, and all three are united by various degrees of possibility and hopefulness.
The story of the search for the baby is intercut with that of an Italian man named Enzo and his Museum of Tears, which he founds after a chance encounter in 1935. Like Jenny and Nick, Enzo --- a creative thinker who is often misunderstood --- is trying to keep his sorrows from subsuming his joy.
Readers may have to suspend disbelief just a bit, but that won’t sully the experience of this thoughtful novel. Hood does a wonderful job allowing the setting to help tell the story, which adds to the overall richness of the book. From the French countryside to Rhode Island, from Paris to Naples to Capri, and from diners to museums, she lets her characters explore the world as they explore their own emotions and motivations, needs and choices. Nick, Jenny, Enzo and others experience a lot of heartbreak, but they remain resilient and trusting at their cores.
While Hood’s reveals are not especially surprising, the narrative is engaging and entertaining with interesting and nuanced characters. THE STOLEN CHILD is a sweet and charming tale of love, purpose and self-acceptance.
Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
The shadow and the voice belong to Camille Chastain, a very pregnant woman and an artist herself on whose property the trench is dug. Nick falls in love with Camille over the course of their brief conversations. Then, as the Germans approach the battlefield, Camille hands over precious items to Nick for safekeeping. This moment of fraught and not exactly welcomed gifting sets in motion the physical and emotional action in Ann Hood’s latest novel, THE STOLEN CHILD.
When Camille decides to flee the Germans, she leaves Nick her newborn son and a few small paintings. She asks that he get her baby to safety. However, Nick leaves the child without waiting to ensure that he will be taken care of; over the decades, this decision haunts him. In 1974, an elderly and dying Nick resolves to find the baby and enlists the help of Jenny, a young college dropout working as a waitress and mourning some losses of her own.
Nick and Jenny head to France and then to Italy, with very little information to go on, to try to discover the fate of Camille’s son. In their travels, they begin to heal wounds and find a sense of peace about the choices they have made and the relationships they have had and lost. Jenny’s optimism and enthusiasm don’t get rid of Nick’s pessimistic grumpiness, but they do alter it, and the two work well together. They are accompanied by Charlie Reynolds, a romantic tour guide, and all three are united by various degrees of possibility and hopefulness.
The story of the search for the baby is intercut with that of an Italian man named Enzo and his Museum of Tears, which he founds after a chance encounter in 1935. Like Jenny and Nick, Enzo --- a creative thinker who is often misunderstood --- is trying to keep his sorrows from subsuming his joy.
Readers may have to suspend disbelief just a bit, but that won’t sully the experience of this thoughtful novel. Hood does a wonderful job allowing the setting to help tell the story, which adds to the overall richness of the book. From the French countryside to Rhode Island, from Paris to Naples to Capri, and from diners to museums, she lets her characters explore the world as they explore their own emotions and motivations, needs and choices. Nick, Jenny, Enzo and others experience a lot of heartbreak, but they remain resilient and trusting at their cores.
While Hood’s reveals are not especially surprising, the narrative is engaging and entertaining with interesting and nuanced characters. THE STOLEN CHILD is a sweet and charming tale of love, purpose and self-acceptance.
Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
May 16, 2024
The Stolen Child" is a beautifully written book and Jefferson Mays provided exceptional narration in the audio version. We move among characters from Nick, first shown in WWI in a trench in France; to Jenny, a 19 year old college dropout waitressing at IHop in the early 1970's; to Enzo, a Nativity set craftsman in Naples in the 1950s, who is a bit too introspective for his brash older brother.
When Nick was a young soldier in the trenches, he met Camille, the very unhappy, very pregnant wife of the farmer who owns the land he and his comrades inhabit. She is an exceptional artist and they strike up a friendship of sorts when she finds Nick painting a mural. As the Germans approach, Camille flees. She finds Nick and thrusts two packages in his arms, her baby "Laurent" and her paintings. "Save them." Nick's decision as to what to do is that of a frightened teenager, far from home. And he spends his whole life regretting the choice he made. His wife is dead. His doctor nephew has told Nick that he is dying of cancer. And Nick decides, now decades later, to look for the baby. Nick hires a helper, Jenny and they embark on a trip to Europe. Their starting place is Paris to look for Camille's paintings somewhere as they are so good they are likely to be found in galleries and very identifiable by a blue smudge in each one. Camille was about to have a showing there back in 1917, after the baby's birth.
Along the way, we meet some contemporaries of Jenny's. First is Daniel, who is studying the poet Pablo Neruda, a 1971 Nobel Laureate (so recent in the novel). Yes, I plan to read him. Secondly, we meet Russell, her ex-boyfriend. And next we travel with Charlie, a hippie type who acts as a guide for Jenny and Nick and befriends them.
Here and there, we readers learn how Enzo is doing. He has created a "Museum of Tears" in his workshop. He collects and identifies the tears of joy and sorrow of people he meets and talks to. He carefully documents each vial of tears by name of the person, year and why they were crying. Enzo falls in love with an Irish tourist who came to see his museum. He is a lovable, somewhat sad, introvert, too thoughtful for his small world.
The hunt for the (very adult) baby takes Nick and Jenny to many locations with possible sources and numerous dead ends, given the time that passed. Nick the curmudgeon who'd advertised for a helper who does not talk much finds Jenny does not fit that requirement. Their relationship is a core part of the sweetness of the novel. Each has a deep sorrow that ties into their quest. The resolution of the story is bittersweet and I thought it was well thought out. Some will be disappointed. Highly recommend.
When Nick was a young soldier in the trenches, he met Camille, the very unhappy, very pregnant wife of the farmer who owns the land he and his comrades inhabit. She is an exceptional artist and they strike up a friendship of sorts when she finds Nick painting a mural. As the Germans approach, Camille flees. She finds Nick and thrusts two packages in his arms, her baby "Laurent" and her paintings. "Save them." Nick's decision as to what to do is that of a frightened teenager, far from home. And he spends his whole life regretting the choice he made. His wife is dead. His doctor nephew has told Nick that he is dying of cancer. And Nick decides, now decades later, to look for the baby. Nick hires a helper, Jenny and they embark on a trip to Europe. Their starting place is Paris to look for Camille's paintings somewhere as they are so good they are likely to be found in galleries and very identifiable by a blue smudge in each one. Camille was about to have a showing there back in 1917, after the baby's birth.
Along the way, we meet some contemporaries of Jenny's. First is Daniel, who is studying the poet Pablo Neruda, a 1971 Nobel Laureate (so recent in the novel). Yes, I plan to read him. Secondly, we meet Russell, her ex-boyfriend. And next we travel with Charlie, a hippie type who acts as a guide for Jenny and Nick and befriends them.
Here and there, we readers learn how Enzo is doing. He has created a "Museum of Tears" in his workshop. He collects and identifies the tears of joy and sorrow of people he meets and talks to. He carefully documents each vial of tears by name of the person, year and why they were crying. Enzo falls in love with an Irish tourist who came to see his museum. He is a lovable, somewhat sad, introvert, too thoughtful for his small world.
The hunt for the (very adult) baby takes Nick and Jenny to many locations with possible sources and numerous dead ends, given the time that passed. Nick the curmudgeon who'd advertised for a helper who does not talk much finds Jenny does not fit that requirement. Their relationship is a core part of the sweetness of the novel. Each has a deep sorrow that ties into their quest. The resolution of the story is bittersweet and I thought it was well thought out. Some will be disappointed. Highly recommend.
May 23, 2024
The Stolen Child is the intersecting story of three individuals and their sorrows, some situational and some of their own making. There is NIck, a Ww1 veteran with less than six months to live searching for the child he left by a well in France. Jenny a young woman who gave up her baby for adoption after the pregnancy derailed her big life goals And finally, Enzo, a introverted Naples artisan who also curates the Museum of Tears that captures emotional moments he witnesses.
The narrative alternates between these three. Nick, after his diagnosis, hires Jenny to help him travel back to Europe to find what happened. Chapters move back and forth in time showing the key events and then the 1970s present of Nick and Jenny on the search. They utilize archives, memories, and the bits and pieces they pick up from conversations with those who were there or with some knowledge of the artist who trusted Nick with her child.
All the characters are suffering. Enzo is lonely, stuck in a dead end job with a brother who barely tolerates him. Nick is haunted by what happened tot he child he left behind and this led to a strained relationship with his wife. Jenny’s life switched from high hopes of the world opened up by the opportunities of higher education to one of being adrift with no concrete plans and seeking for something to pass the days.
Overall the narrative is fast paced, and well narrated by Jefferson Mays, who read many of The Expanse series. Mays is very good at providing each character with their own voice altering pacing and speaking style. He also is still very clear and understandable at higher listening speeds.
The Stolen Child is a decent fast paced, feel good story of redemption and forgiveness. It touches on the horrors of war, the emotional turmoil of missed or lost opportunities and several character arcs also could be viewed as having or lacking privilege. Based on the description of one last trip to solve the mystery you can predict some of the outcomes, but Hood has realized and personalized the characters to the point where you can’t help but want to know the outcomes of their journey.
Recommended for those who enjoy romantic historical fiction, relative happy endings, or the journey being just as important as the destination.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
The narrative alternates between these three. Nick, after his diagnosis, hires Jenny to help him travel back to Europe to find what happened. Chapters move back and forth in time showing the key events and then the 1970s present of Nick and Jenny on the search. They utilize archives, memories, and the bits and pieces they pick up from conversations with those who were there or with some knowledge of the artist who trusted Nick with her child.
All the characters are suffering. Enzo is lonely, stuck in a dead end job with a brother who barely tolerates him. Nick is haunted by what happened tot he child he left behind and this led to a strained relationship with his wife. Jenny’s life switched from high hopes of the world opened up by the opportunities of higher education to one of being adrift with no concrete plans and seeking for something to pass the days.
Overall the narrative is fast paced, and well narrated by Jefferson Mays, who read many of The Expanse series. Mays is very good at providing each character with their own voice altering pacing and speaking style. He also is still very clear and understandable at higher listening speeds.
The Stolen Child is a decent fast paced, feel good story of redemption and forgiveness. It touches on the horrors of war, the emotional turmoil of missed or lost opportunities and several character arcs also could be viewed as having or lacking privilege. Based on the description of one last trip to solve the mystery you can predict some of the outcomes, but Hood has realized and personalized the characters to the point where you can’t help but want to know the outcomes of their journey.
Recommended for those who enjoy romantic historical fiction, relative happy endings, or the journey being just as important as the destination.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
February 7, 2024
Note: Thank you to NetGalley, W.W. Norton & Co,, and Ann Hood for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.
This book intrigued me when I read the description, since it’s not the usual World War II historical fiction. The story here goes from the trenches of World War I France to mid-1970s Rhode Island and Europe. It’s the story of regrets and decisions that haunt people, and coming to terms with all of that at the end of one’s life.
Nick Burns was a soldier in the trenches of France during the first World War. As the Germans were overrunning their position, an artist who lived in a nearby home handed him a bundle of her paintings and her newborn son and asked her to take care of them. In a daze, Nick walked through the fighting until he came to a town where he left the bundles near the well in the center of town.
More than fifty years later, Nick is approaching the end of his life. Not knowing what happened to that baby has haunted him for the rest of his life. He decides he needs to learn the truth. He employs a young woman, Jenny, to travel with him to Europe and try to find out what happened to the baby. Jenny has her own secrets that she’s trying to cope with, but her dream is to travel to Europe and this trip with Nick is everything she could hope for.
Meanwhile, in Naples, Italy, Enzo is a man working for his family’s business crafting nativity figures. He has also developed a Museum of Tears, in which he collects the tears of people and keeps track of them. It’s an interesting diversion as he stumbles through life, trying to find his place. The three of them will collide in a most unexpected way.
To read my full review, please go to: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...
This book intrigued me when I read the description, since it’s not the usual World War II historical fiction. The story here goes from the trenches of World War I France to mid-1970s Rhode Island and Europe. It’s the story of regrets and decisions that haunt people, and coming to terms with all of that at the end of one’s life.
Nick Burns was a soldier in the trenches of France during the first World War. As the Germans were overrunning their position, an artist who lived in a nearby home handed him a bundle of her paintings and her newborn son and asked her to take care of them. In a daze, Nick walked through the fighting until he came to a town where he left the bundles near the well in the center of town.
More than fifty years later, Nick is approaching the end of his life. Not knowing what happened to that baby has haunted him for the rest of his life. He decides he needs to learn the truth. He employs a young woman, Jenny, to travel with him to Europe and try to find out what happened to the baby. Jenny has her own secrets that she’s trying to cope with, but her dream is to travel to Europe and this trip with Nick is everything she could hope for.
Meanwhile, in Naples, Italy, Enzo is a man working for his family’s business crafting nativity figures. He has also developed a Museum of Tears, in which he collects the tears of people and keeps track of them. It’s an interesting diversion as he stumbles through life, trying to find his place. The three of them will collide in a most unexpected way.
To read my full review, please go to: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...
February 21, 2024
I had quite a journey reading this book as an ARC. I enjoyed the beginning. I thought for awhile that the middle was a bit boring, but later realized that it was only setting up the reader to a special finish.
Nick Burns was an American soldier in World War I in France. He was in the middle of a big firefight between the trenches, which he painted murals on when he had a lull in the action. A French woman named Camille, herself an artist, asked him to save both her paintings and her newborn baby. He ended up leaving the baby near a well in a small village in France. Years later, he regrets leaving the baby and wonders what happened to him. 50 years later, Nick finds out he is dying and hires a young woman named Jenny to help him in his endeavor.
Jenny has troubles of her own and is trying to fix her life so she agrees to help him. They go to France and through some clues, they go to Italy. They run into some dead ends and people that they know are lying. Another story is interspersed with their story, about 2 brother in Italy, one who runs a small museum of tears consisting of tears he has collected from sad and happy people.
The two plots come together near the end of the story and Jenny decides to stay in Italy and take over the museum. Some new revelations lead Jenny to find out what really occurred and she lets Nick know so that he can have a final peace in his life.
This is a story of hope and resilience, and also a great character study. I'm glad I stayed with the story, as I really enjoyed it.
Nick Burns was an American soldier in World War I in France. He was in the middle of a big firefight between the trenches, which he painted murals on when he had a lull in the action. A French woman named Camille, herself an artist, asked him to save both her paintings and her newborn baby. He ended up leaving the baby near a well in a small village in France. Years later, he regrets leaving the baby and wonders what happened to him. 50 years later, Nick finds out he is dying and hires a young woman named Jenny to help him in his endeavor.
Jenny has troubles of her own and is trying to fix her life so she agrees to help him. They go to France and through some clues, they go to Italy. They run into some dead ends and people that they know are lying. Another story is interspersed with their story, about 2 brother in Italy, one who runs a small museum of tears consisting of tears he has collected from sad and happy people.
The two plots come together near the end of the story and Jenny decides to stay in Italy and take over the museum. Some new revelations lead Jenny to find out what really occurred and she lets Nick know so that he can have a final peace in his life.
This is a story of hope and resilience, and also a great character study. I'm glad I stayed with the story, as I really enjoyed it.
May 10, 2024
The Stolen Child by Ann Hood and narrated by Jefferson Mays is a stunning story following an American soldier who fought in France in WWI.
Jefferson Mays has a gentle, undulating cadence that is weell suited to the personalites of the primary characters. The audiobook was a joy to listen to
Nick had fallen for a local woman, both with a shared love of art, and while she was married, heavily pregnant and terrifed of invasion, she still dreamed of more. However, in desperation, she begs Nick to run, to take her child and the paintings and keep them safe. However, Nick had to leave the child behind in the hope they would survive. Racked with guilt, in 1974 Nick is desperate to return to France to try and find the child
However, Nick needs help and this comes in the form of Jenny, a girl that has been working as a waitress and dreaming of going to Italy all her life, to learn, to experience the world. However, she is forced to drop out of college after one semester due to a hazy night and unprotected s3x with her boyfriend of 3 years (who she was actually about to break up with)
This unlikely duo is a wonderful concept and the storyline is steady, detailed, immersive. Hood builds characters in their entirity so that the reader is invested in what happens to them, emotionally invested in the storyline
I really enjoyed this audiobook, highly recommended
Thank you to Netgalley, RB Media | Recorded Books, the author Ann Hood and narrator Jefferson Mays for this wonderful ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own
Jefferson Mays has a gentle, undulating cadence that is weell suited to the personalites of the primary characters. The audiobook was a joy to listen to
Nick had fallen for a local woman, both with a shared love of art, and while she was married, heavily pregnant and terrifed of invasion, she still dreamed of more. However, in desperation, she begs Nick to run, to take her child and the paintings and keep them safe. However, Nick had to leave the child behind in the hope they would survive. Racked with guilt, in 1974 Nick is desperate to return to France to try and find the child
However, Nick needs help and this comes in the form of Jenny, a girl that has been working as a waitress and dreaming of going to Italy all her life, to learn, to experience the world. However, she is forced to drop out of college after one semester due to a hazy night and unprotected s3x with her boyfriend of 3 years (who she was actually about to break up with)
This unlikely duo is a wonderful concept and the storyline is steady, detailed, immersive. Hood builds characters in their entirity so that the reader is invested in what happens to them, emotionally invested in the storyline
I really enjoyed this audiobook, highly recommended
Thank you to Netgalley, RB Media | Recorded Books, the author Ann Hood and narrator Jefferson Mays for this wonderful ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own
May 16, 2024
This historical novel begins in 1917 with WWI in the trenches where a young American soldier, Nick, is painting a mural on the walls. A French woman hands his a bundle - a baby boy swaddled in a blanket, and 2 small paintings of the countryside with a blue figure- with a note "His name is Laurent." As the soldier hold the child, he realizes that he can't carry him through the war, so he leaves him near a well in the center of the village and evades the encroaching Germans.
Forward to 1974 when we meet Jenny, an intelligent young woman who dropped out of college, and is now working at IHOP as a waitress. She has a dream of going to Capri and meeting a boyfriend there while he work on his thesis on the poet Pablo Neruda. When she learns of a job as a companion to an elderly man (Nick) who wants to go to France and Italy, she interviews for the job and the two set off on an adventure to find the child (now around 60 yrs old) and the artist who left him with Nick along with the paintings.
This book kept my interest throughout and provided a quick trip to both France and Italy. The characters were memorable, well drawn, realistic, ordinary people with hopes and dreams. Yes, they had regrets, but they also were determined to pursue their mission to the end.
I thought the ending was poignant- a little sad, an a little hopeful - and it wrapped up the novel beautifully.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher and the opinions expressed her are entirely my own. I will be recommending this book to my book groups because there is a lot to discuss in it.
Forward to 1974 when we meet Jenny, an intelligent young woman who dropped out of college, and is now working at IHOP as a waitress. She has a dream of going to Capri and meeting a boyfriend there while he work on his thesis on the poet Pablo Neruda. When she learns of a job as a companion to an elderly man (Nick) who wants to go to France and Italy, she interviews for the job and the two set off on an adventure to find the child (now around 60 yrs old) and the artist who left him with Nick along with the paintings.
This book kept my interest throughout and provided a quick trip to both France and Italy. The characters were memorable, well drawn, realistic, ordinary people with hopes and dreams. Yes, they had regrets, but they also were determined to pursue their mission to the end.
I thought the ending was poignant- a little sad, an a little hopeful - and it wrapped up the novel beautifully.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher and the opinions expressed her are entirely my own. I will be recommending this book to my book groups because there is a lot to discuss in it.
April 17, 2024
3.5
If you can suspend some reality and look over some obvious holes in the plot, you will enjoy this story of an American soldier in the trenches in France during WWI. He is drawing a mural when a very pregnant neighboring farmer's wife comes to bring him some bread. She notices his art and they begin to connect over art and she shares some of her art. After Camille has given birth and the Germans are advancing, she runs up to Nick, the soldier, and gives him her baby and her art pieces and leaves. What is a young soldier with an advancing enemy supposed to do? Why did this mother give away her baby and her art?
Years later, Nick decides he can't live any longer not knowing what happened to the baby, so he employs a young college dropout, Jenny, to accompany him to France and Italy. He is very poor health with not much longer to live, but Jenny is very organized and very determined.
The relationship between Nick and Jenny grows as they get to know each other., which is a very charming part of this story.
The story was a bit predictable. There are some unbelievable parts of the story and a slow telling that builds to the end which felt a bit rushed. I wanted to savor more of this ending. I also wanted more background on some of these characters. But overall, it is a sweet story with a bit of a mystery that kept me turning the pages.
My thanks to Net Galley and WWNorton & Co for an advanced copy of this e-book.
If you can suspend some reality and look over some obvious holes in the plot, you will enjoy this story of an American soldier in the trenches in France during WWI. He is drawing a mural when a very pregnant neighboring farmer's wife comes to bring him some bread. She notices his art and they begin to connect over art and she shares some of her art. After Camille has given birth and the Germans are advancing, she runs up to Nick, the soldier, and gives him her baby and her art pieces and leaves. What is a young soldier with an advancing enemy supposed to do? Why did this mother give away her baby and her art?
Years later, Nick decides he can't live any longer not knowing what happened to the baby, so he employs a young college dropout, Jenny, to accompany him to France and Italy. He is very poor health with not much longer to live, but Jenny is very organized and very determined.
The relationship between Nick and Jenny grows as they get to know each other., which is a very charming part of this story.
The story was a bit predictable. There are some unbelievable parts of the story and a slow telling that builds to the end which felt a bit rushed. I wanted to savor more of this ending. I also wanted more background on some of these characters. But overall, it is a sweet story with a bit of a mystery that kept me turning the pages.
My thanks to Net Galley and WWNorton & Co for an advanced copy of this e-book.
March 3, 2024
The Stolen Child by Ann Hood braids the stories of Nick, a veteran of WWI who's lived his post-war life haunted by a decision he made during the war, and Jenny, a young woman who's also grappling her her own regrets. The novel is told from multiple points of view and multiple time periods, and Hood does a beautiful job weaving them together.
In the midst of a battle in France during the war, a young woman asks Nick, a young soldier, to take two bundles from her, one contains two paintings, the other a baby, and she asks Nick to take care of them for her. The woman then flees from the approaching Germans. Nick eventually leaves the baby in a small village near a well in the hope that someone will find him and care for him, but he regrets the decision for the rest of his life. Shortly learning that he has terminal cancer many decades later, Nick hires a young woman, Jenny, to accompany him to find out what happened to the baby, the woman, and the paintings. During the way, the reader meets other characters that fall into place in the narrative.
Hood's shimmering writing draws the reader into this compelling novel of regret and ultimately redemption. This would make a great book club read.
Many thanks to W.W. Norton for an advanced copy of The Stolen Child. All opinions expressed are my own.
In the midst of a battle in France during the war, a young woman asks Nick, a young soldier, to take two bundles from her, one contains two paintings, the other a baby, and she asks Nick to take care of them for her. The woman then flees from the approaching Germans. Nick eventually leaves the baby in a small village near a well in the hope that someone will find him and care for him, but he regrets the decision for the rest of his life. Shortly learning that he has terminal cancer many decades later, Nick hires a young woman, Jenny, to accompany him to find out what happened to the baby, the woman, and the paintings. During the way, the reader meets other characters that fall into place in the narrative.
Hood's shimmering writing draws the reader into this compelling novel of regret and ultimately redemption. This would make a great book club read.
Many thanks to W.W. Norton for an advanced copy of The Stolen Child. All opinions expressed are my own.
May 8, 2024
I was pulled to this book, as I am everything Ann Hood writes, because I met her a long time ago at a writers' conference in Brooklyn. Just about everything I have read of hers is literary fiction. This represents something of a departure; it is historical fiction. I would say though it still has a very literary fiction feel to it. The protagonist, Nick, a soldier in WWI, he is handed a baby by a young woman to keep safe. Nick leaves the infant in a trench, hoping that it will be safe. In 1973, as an elderly man, he travels to Europe to look for the baby (now older adult, of course). He takes a companion with him, Jennifer, a young woman who works as a waitress at an IHOP but dreams of bigger things, including going abroad. Nick has his guilt, from having left the baby in the trench and Jennifer has her own baggage. Hood tells us of how Nick and Jennifer try and locate this baby with very little information to go on. Hood does a good job of characterization, as we learn about Jennifer and Nick through what is shown, versus told, as well as conveying how their bond develops. There is also a wonderful sense of place, which I love especially in books that take place in Europe, including among other ways, by giving the reader little bits and pieces of French and Italian along the way.
I would give this novel 4.5 stars. There were a few points where the narrative was a little confusing or where I found my attention wandering just a little. However, it is obvious that Hood can write historical fiction as well as literary fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Co. for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I would give this novel 4.5 stars. There were a few points where the narrative was a little confusing or where I found my attention wandering just a little. However, it is obvious that Hood can write historical fiction as well as literary fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Co. for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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