Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2017
448 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
"If the literary gods mixed together Haruki Murakami and Ralph Ellison, the result would be Victor LaValle." - Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See
When Apollo Kagwa's father disappeared, all he left his son were strange recurring dreams and a box of books stamped with the word IMPROBABILIA. Now Apollo is a father himself - and as he and his wife, Emma, are settling into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo's old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd. Irritable and disconnected from their new baby boy, at first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression, but it quickly becomes clear that her troubles go even deeper. Before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act - beyond any parent's comprehension - and vanishes, seemingly into thin air.
Thus begins Apollo's odyssey through a world he only thought he understood, to find a wife and child who are nothing like he'd imagined. His quest, which begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma's whereabouts, takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.
This captivating retelling of a classic fairy tale imaginatively explores parental obsession, spousal love, and the secrets that make strangers out of the people we love the most. It's a thrilling and emotionally devastating journey through the gruesome legacies that threaten to devour us and the homely, messy magic that saves us, if we're lucky.
"Starred Review. A smart and knotty merger of horror, fantasy, and realism." - Kirkus
"LaValle makes occasionally strained efforts to weave contemporary concerns - helicopter parenting, online oversharing, and Internet trolls - into this elemental fabric. Nonetheless, the novel works best when immersed in the violent, unpredictable realm of dark fairy tales." - Publishers Weekly
"A dark fairy tale of New York, full of magic and loss, myth and mystery, love and madness. The Changeling is a mesmerizing, monumental work." - Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings
"Like a good Coen brothers film, this genre-defying, achingly literate phantasmagoria of a novel will work every nook and cranny of the imagination, taking the reader to places we're either too afraid to visit or never knew existed." - Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout
"Absolutely compelling, completely thrilling, The Changeling overflows with menace, wonder, and beauty." - Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble
"This year, the most unsettling novel I read, the scariest novel I read, and the most beautiful novel I read were all the same one - Victor LaValle's The Changeling ... This story feels less written, than channeled. I say this without exaggeration: It's a masterpiece." - Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Loving Day
This information about The Changeling was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Victor LaValle is the author of six previous works of fiction: three novels, two novellas, and a collection of short stories. His novels have been included in best-of-the-year lists by The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Nation, and Publishers Weekly, among others. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Key to Southeast Queens. He lives in New York City with his wife and kids and teaches at Columbia University.
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