Golden Child: A Novel

by Claire Adam Narrated by Obi Abili

Overview

A*deeply affecting debut novel set in Trinidad, following the lives of a family as they navigate impossible choices about scarcity, loyalty, and love

WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE ¿*“Golden Child*is a stunning novel written with force and beauty.* Though true to herself, Adam's work stands tall beside icons of her tradition like V.S. Naipaul.”-Jennifer Clement, author of*Gun Love

Rural Trinidad: a brick house on stilts surrounded by bush; a family, quietly surviving, just trying to live a decent life. Clyde, the father, works long, exhausting shifts at the petroleum plant in southern Trinidad; Joy, his wife, looks after the home. Their two sons, thirteen years old, wake early every morning to travel to the capital, Port of Spain, for school. They are twins but nothing alike: Paul has always been considered odd,*while*Peter is widely believed to be a genius, destined for greatness.

When*Paul goes walking in the bush one afternoon and doesn't come home, Clyde is forced to go looking for him, this child who has caused him endless trouble already, and who he has never really understood. And as the hours turn to days, and Clyde begins to understand Paul's fate, his world shatters-leaving him faced with a decision no parent should ever have to make.

Like the Trinidadian landscape itself, Golden Child*is both beautiful and unsettling, a resoundingly human story of aspiration, betrayal, and love.

Praise for Golden Child

“In fluid and uncluttered prose, Golden Child weaves an enveloping portrait of an insular social order in which the claustrophobic support of family and neighbors coexists with an omnipresent threat from the same corners.”-The*New York Times*Book Review

“[A] powerful debut . . . a devastating family portrait-and a fascinating window into Trinidadian society.”-People

“[An] emotionally potent debut novel . . . with a spare, evocative style, Adam (a Trinidad native) evokes the island's complexity during the mid-'80s, when the novel is mostly set: the tenuous relationship between Hindus like Clyde's family and the twins' Catholic schoolmaster, assassinations and abductions hyped by lurid media headlines, resources that attract carpetbagging oil companies but leave the country largely impoverished.”-USA Today

Editorial Reviews

MARCH 2019 - AudioFile

Narrator Obi Abili’s soft Caribbean accent beautifully complements this intimate and harrowing story of a family in Trinidad. Peter and Paul are the twin sons of caring Hindu parents, and, while Peter is a gifted student, Paul struggles, seeing the world differently from those around him. Clyde, the boys’ father, struggles to raise and educate them in the crime-ridden town where they live. The story is told from the points of view of the main characters, and Abili’s voice allows him to shift effortlessly among them—from Clyde to a beloved uncle to a priest who teaches the boys in school. A terrible crime befalls the brothers, and Abili lends his talent to convey Clyde’s anguish at deciding their fates. D.G.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

★ 11/19/2018
Adam’s excellent debut explores a dark and haunting Sophie’s Choice–like dilemma set in the lush and dangerous bush of Trinidad. At the center are 13-year-old twin brothers—Peter, the brilliant son with a golden future, and Paul, the family’s sorrow—who are simultaneously lifted and doomed by the aspirations of their parents, relatives, and teachers. The first of three parts begins with the disappearance of Paul after a harsh tongue-lashing by his father, Clyde. The second part reveals Paul’s troubled childhood, in which he’s cast as mentally slow and Peter as a genius by their doting mother, Joy, Paul’s lifelong protector. It’s also when the concern of an Irish priest at the boys’ school in Port of Spain opens Paul to his first-ever glimmer of hope and confidence—before a break-in at the family’s rural home triggers the tragic chain of events leading to Paul’s disappearance. In the third part, Clyde makes the heartbreaking choice—forced by a jealous family member—that seals the fate of the boys and family. Throughout this stunning portrait of Trinidad’s multicultural diversity, and one family’s sacrifices, soaring hopes and ultimate despair, Adam weaves a poetic lightness and beauty that will transfix readers. (Jan.)

From the Publisher

Advance Praise for Golden Child:

“Golden Child is a stunning novel written with force and beauty.  Though true to herself, Adam's work stands tall beside icons of her tradition like V.S. Naipaul.”—Jennifer Clement, author of Gun Love

“Golden Child swells with wisdom about masculinity, family, violence and sacrifice. I read it in a sitting, gripping the pages, nails chewed down by the final word. An intense, heart-breaking debut.”—Daniel Magariel, author of One of the Boys

“The characters in Golden Child are so completely real that I keep forgetting that their home is the page; they seem to breathe and think on their own. This is a devastating, wonderful book, and I can't help but wait impatiently for whatever Claire Adam writes next.” – Sara Taylor, author of The Lauras

“Utterly convincing, horrifying and, ultimately, intensely moving, it’s almost impossible to believe this small masterpiece is a first novel. Adam is a true and rare talent. I’m in awe.”—Julie Myerson, author of The Stopped Heart

MARCH 2019 - AudioFile

Narrator Obi Abili’s soft Caribbean accent beautifully complements this intimate and harrowing story of a family in Trinidad. Peter and Paul are the twin sons of caring Hindu parents, and, while Peter is a gifted student, Paul struggles, seeing the world differently from those around him. Clyde, the boys’ father, struggles to raise and educate them in the crime-ridden town where they live. The story is told from the points of view of the main characters, and Abili’s voice allows him to shift effortlessly among them—from Clyde to a beloved uncle to a priest who teaches the boys in school. A terrible crime befalls the brothers, and Abili lends his talent to convey Clyde’s anguish at deciding their fates. D.G.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172198274
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	01/29/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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