Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

The stolen child, a novel, Keith Donohue

eng

charts

no index present

novels

The stolen child

Keith Donohue

a novel

Set vaguely in the American northeast, Henry Day is kidnapped by hobgoblins and replaced by a lookalike impostor. In alternating chapters, each Henry relates the tale of how he adjusts to his new situation. Human Henry learns to run with his hobgoblin pack, who never age but rarely seem more fey than a gang of runaway teens. Hobgoblin Henry develops his uncanny talent for mimicry into a music career and settles into an otherwise unremarkable human life. Neither Henry feels entirely comfortable with his existence, and the pathos of their losses influences all of their relationships and experiences. Inevitably, their struggles to retrieve their increasingly forgotten pasts put them on paths that intersect decades later. The result is an impressive novel of outsiders whose feelings of alienation are more natural than supernatural