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|
The
2004 Award
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|
Child
of My Heart by
Alice McDermott |
Nominated by:
Publisher
of Nominated Edition:
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| the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors |
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ABOUT
THE BOOK
|
| A
woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of
hindsight. The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end
of Long Island among the summerhouses of the rich, Theresa is the town's
most sought-after babysitter - cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller,
a wonder with children and animals - but also a solitary soul already attuned
to the paradoxes and compromises of adult life. Among her charges this fateful
summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has left a crowded working-class
household in the city to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place,
under Theresa's benevolent eye. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighbourhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the mysteriously compelling attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-cheek sense of order is put to the test as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
| Alice McDermott is the author of four previous novels: Charming Billy, short listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2002 and winner of the National Book Award 1998; At Wedding and Wakes; That Night; and A Bigamist's Daughter. She lives with her family outside Washington, D.C. |
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Reader
Review
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Theresa, the fifteen-year-old heroine of the novel, is an only child of ambitious parents living in Long Island. Her summer is spent baby-sitting and animal minding for families who her parents hope will give her an entrée into upper-class society. Theresa's other charge is her young cousin Daisy on holiday from Queens. The novel is beautifully written and the reader is drawn into Theresa's wonderful, fanciful stories, and can only marvel at her ability to bring calm where there is chaos and feel anxious for her in her transition from child to woman. This is a book which deserves a second read. Member
of the Raheny Library Reading Group, Dublin, Ireland |
 |
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