Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English
Weblink
http://books.simonandschuster.co …

THE CHILDREN'S HOME

Charles Lambert

Any attempt at a description of the plot of THE CHILDREN'S HOME will fail to do this haunting and enigmatic book justice.

Morgan is a shockingly disfigured recluse who never leaves the country mansion he is heir to. His isolation is only punctuated by the presence of the housekeeper, Engel, and the weekly visits of the kindly Doctor Crane. But his solitary existence is disturbed when a young boy and girl arrive in the house, as if from nowhere. Drawn to the mysterious children, Morgan lets them stay, and with the help of Engel and Crane, begins to care for them and others who soon follow them, in a strange Pied Piperish reversal. As the cluster of strangely wise children explore the corridors and abandoned rooms of the house, they reveal to Morgan a cabinet of curiosities and bitter secrets of his own life. THE CHILDREN'S HOME creates an eerily unforgettable, gothic-tinged world as it explores ideas of disfigurement and beauty, isolation and parenthood, love and the responsibilities of power. Even in this off-kilter reality, Charles Lambert's characterisation is always deft and moving. Hannah Tinti published his ghostly O. Henry Prize winner The Scent of Cinnamon' in One Story and wrote this about it: Charles Lambert pulls out the deepest-held emotions of his characters love and desire and loneliness and hope until they ripple across the page, and the reader feels them too.'

Available products
Book Published 2016-01-01 by Scribner

Comments

Scribner

This disquieting novel is surely one of the year's most bizarre stories. Mr. Lambert's subtle prose enhances the novel's creepiness, as does his refusal to fully resolve or explain its many mysteries.' Carmela Ciararu

Editions Anne Carrière

THE CHILDREN'S HOME is a powerful construction of creeping dread which skilfully keeps the reader off-balance at every turn. Nothing seems to be fixed in Morgan's world and truths are slowly revealed which regularly shift the reader's understanding. The setting itself is a mystery: what first seems to be a fairly standard English country house a trope as familiar as the mysterious children isn't, quite. The walls themselves protect the residents from a world in flux. Or do they serve as a prison? Or is it both? Much of the joy of THE CHILDREN'S HOME is the uncertainty at its heart, the uncanny nature of the experience which lingers long after the novel concludes. It's a genre-defying dream of a novel, enigmas wrapped around deeper questions, rooted in the deepest mysteries of all: what is the truth within any of us? What connections do we have to those around us? What hold does the past keep fast on our hearts?' Robert Wiersema

After slowly unfolding Fletcher's story, Lambert then accelerates the pace to a breath-taking climax. THE CHILDREN'S HOME is a magical, mesmerizing tale about the courage it takes to confront the unknown.'

"THE CHILDREN'S HOME reads like a dream. [...] a truly unique and memorable experience. If this novel signifies what my reading in 2016 will be like, then it is going to be a wonderful year indeed." Read more...

A thoroughly original entry into the tradition of ghost stories, eschewing convention compulsively readable A one-of-a-kind literary horror story'