The Cuckoo's Child

April 1, 2014

When fortysomething Olivia discovers that she is not her parents' biological child after results of a donor match test for her brother, who has been diagnosed with leukemia, her parents are forced to confess that they found her as a baby after an air raid in war-torn England. They give her a few possessions from her past, including an address, and she travels to England to search for her birth family. In Olivia's contemplative first-person narrative addressed to her dying brother, two mysteries are slowly unravelled--that of her lost birth family and that of her missing son, who disappeared when he was four years old. Olivia's voice is reflective and even toned, and her anguish is elegantly condensed, as though she is observing her grief from a distance. The descriptions of loss are juxtaposed with detailed descriptions of beauty in nature all around. VERDICT Thompson's first adult novel--her children's books have received recognition in England--will appeal to readers who like introspective literature and a gentle voice; suggest to fans of Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending.--Sonia Reppe, Stickney-Forest View P.L., IL

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