Dear Child
A Novel
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4.2 • 235 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“[A] tantalizingly disturbing debut…As enthralling as it is thought-provoking.” -New York Times Book Review
Bustle Best Books of Fall 2020
Publishers Weekly Top 10 Mysteries & Thrillers of Fall 2020
She Reads Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2020
A woman held captive finally escapes—but can she ever really get away?
Gone Girl meets Room in this page-turning, #1 internationally bestselling thriller from one of Germany’s hottest new talents
A windowless shack in the woods. A dash to safety. But when a woman finally escapes her captor, the end of the story is only the beginning of her nightmare.
She says her name is Lena. Lena, who disappeared without a trace 14 years prior. She fits the profile. She has the distinctive scar. But her family swears that she isn’t their Lena.
The little girl who escaped the woods with her knows things she isn’t sharing, and Lena’s devastated father is trying to piece together details that don’t quite fit. Lena is desperate to begin again, but something tells her that her tormentor still wants to get back what belongs to him…and that she may not be able to truly escape until the whole truth about what happened in the woods finally emerges.
Twisty, suspenseful, and psychologically clever, Romy Hausmann's Dear Child is a captivating thriller with all the ingredients of a breakout hit.
“Chilling, original and mesmerizing.” —David Baldacci
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Early in German author Hausmann's outstanding debut, a woman is hit by a car in a forest on the German-Czech border. The police believe the victim may be Lena Beck, a college student who disappeared in Munich 13 years earlier. After a search of the forest reveals a windowless cabin, a horrific story begins taking shape: Lena was abducted and forced to live in captivity while giving birth to a girl and a boy. When Lena's father, Matthias, arrives at the hospital to identify his daughter, however, he says it's not her. But the young girl with her the woman's alleged daughter looks exactly like a younger Lena. A DNA test confirms both children are, in fact, Matthias's grandchildren. As the traumatized woman and the two kids struggle to adapt to life outside of the cabin, Matthias vows to find out what happened to his daughter. The multiple points of view and numerous plot twists sustain the breakneck pacing, but the book's real power lies in the author's insightful and sensitive portrayal of the characters involved in the tragedy. This darkly disturbing thriller definitely marks Hausmann as a writer to watch.
Customer Reviews
Dear child
Love this book you will not want to put it down front the start of the first page
Beautifully Tragic
This is easily one of the most captivating books I’ve ever read. It kept my attention from beginning to end and told the story perfectly. I absolutely adore this book.
Excellent
So intricately written- probably the best book I’ve read in a very long time. You could literally see and hear and feel what the characters were thinking, seeing, feeling.