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The Wrong Child

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781409171812

Price: £13.99

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Of all the children to survive, why did it have to be him?

A rural village school building collapses.
Only one child survives: Dog Evans.

To his own mother and father, Dog becomes a daily reminder of their survivor’s guilt.
To the other parents he is a hated and feared emblem of their unbearable loss.

Now, seven years after the tragedy, Dog’s parents have abandoned him.
And with no one to protect him, the broken community’s desire for catharsis and sacrifice soon becomes unstoppable…

Uncompromising and powerful, THE WRONG CHILD is a heartbreaking – but ultimately hopeful – portrayal of loss and grief in an unimaginable situation. A must-read for fans of THE BAD SEED by William March, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN and WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE by Shirley Jackson.

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Reviews

[Gornell's] admirable single-mindedness and cool nerve are allied to a highly developed prose style which effectively conjures up a mood of darkness, intense cold and moral ambiguity - one in which nature itself feels complicit in the actions of the people. It is genuinely gripping
THE HERALD
The Wrong Child is a startling and uncompromising story of grief and anger, of abandonment and decay. It's intense - darker than dark - but also original and beautiful
HELEN FITZGERALD, author of Viral, Dead Lovely and The Cry
[An] uncompromising story of grief, anger, abandonment and decay
SCOTS MAGAZINE
Stunning. Macabre, unsettling and beautifully poetic
BRIAN CONAGHAN, Costa Award winning author of THE BOMBS THAT BROUGHT US TOGETHER
Reviews of the most thought-provoking thriller of the year, for fans of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN by Lionel Shriver, BIG LITTLE LIES by Liane Moriarty and MY ABSOLUTE DARLING by Gabriel Tallent: 'Brilliant, but as dark as hell. The British version of Daniel Woodrell'
METRO
A deeply unsettling tale of loss, abandonment and revenge
THE LIST
A very thought-provoking read
THE SUN
God, this is dark. A study of guilt and grief
DAILY MAIL