The Stolen Child: Summary and book reviews of The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, plus links to an excerpt from The Stolen Child and a biography of Keith Donohue.
The Stolen Child A Novel
by Keith Donohue
Hardcover: May 2006,
336 pages.
Paperback: May 2007,
384 pages.
Inspired by the
W.B. Yeats poem that tempts a child from home to the waters and the wild, The
Stolen Child is a modern fairy tale narrated by the child Henry Day and his
double. On a summer night, Henry Day runs away from home and hides in a hollow tree.
There he is taken by the changelings—an unaging tribe of wild children who live
in darkness and in secret. They spirit him away, name him Aniday, and make him
one of their own. Stuck forever as a child, Aniday grows in spirit, struggling
to remember the life and family he left behind. He also seeks to understand and
fit in this shadow land, as modern life encroaches upon both myth and nature.
In his place, the changelings leave a double, a boy who steals Henry’s life in
the world. This new Henry Day must adjust to a modern culture while hiding his
true identity from the Day family. But he can’t hide his extraordinary talent
for the piano (a skill the true Henry never displayed), and his dazzling
performances prompt his father to suspect that the son he has raised is an
imposter. As he ages the new Henry Day becomes haunted by vague but persistent
memories of life in another time and place, of a German piano teacher and his
prodigy. Of a time when he, too, had been a stolen child. Both Henry and Aniday
obsessively search for who they once were before they changed places in the
world.
The Stolen Child is a classic tale of leaving childhood and the search
for identity. With just the right mix of fantasy and realism, Keith Donohue has
created a bedtime story for adults and a literary fable of remarkable depth and
strange delights.
BOOK REVIEWS
BookBrowse The Stolen Child is one of those out-of-the-box type novels that tend to either miss by a mile or, like The Time Traveler's Wife, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, or The Life of Pi, hit a nerve with people and become tremendously popular. The Stolen Child's blend of fantasy and realism combined with a classic search for identity story should place it firmly in the latter category. Full Review (424 words).
Media Reviews
Publishers Weekly
An impressive novel of outsiders whose feelings of alienation are more natural than supernatural.
Library Journal
A haunting, unusual first novel, The Stolen Child is recommended.
Kirkus Reviews
Take that, Bilbo Baggins! Donohue's sparkling debut especially delights because, by surrounding his fantasy with real-world, humdrum detail, he makes magic believable.
USA Today
Fascinating...Donohue paints a vivid picture of American life from the 1950s into the 1970s and the pressures on a boy who, in addition to not being entirely human, is growing up in the Vietnam War era, when attitudes toward sex, drugs, and patriotism were undergoing a sea change....Anidays's story is set in the cool forest where the forever children live off the lush land except for forays into town to steal supplies and perform random acts of mischief. It is a world threatened by civilization, an encroachment that pushes the present and former Henrys toward each other. Both sides of this story are poignant and beautifully told.
Entertainment Weekly
An ingenious, spirited allegory for adolescent angst, aging, the purpose of art, etc., that digs deep. Grade: A.
Scotland on Sunday
A welcome addition to the field of contemporary fantasy…sparklingly quirky... Overall it is a gently redemptive parable about becoming oneself.
Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife The Stolen Child is unsentimental and vividly imagined. Keith Donohue evokes the otherworldly with humor and the ordinary with wonder. I enjoyed it immensely.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Diana Amazing. Just amazing. I felt so bad when I had to close the book one last time, and had to say goodbye to Mota and Aniday (forgive me if I don't know the names in English. There was one copy left at the bookstore, it was in Spanish and that book just lured... Read More
Rated of 5
by Elizabeth Haunting Fairies, trees, switching places, family, trust, secrets, longing to return........
Henry Day was tired of babysitting his sisters and ran into the woods after his mother insisted that he help more with them. The changelings took him that... Read More
War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.
A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.
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(424 words).
Publishers Weekly
Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife
of 5
by Diana
of 5
by Elizabeth
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