A Crying Shame

(Paperback)

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Description

Another heartrending story from the bestselling Dutch author, set on the Isle of Mull, of abused and lost children and the old spinster in whose car they stow away. For ten-year-old Christine, home is a hostile, troubling place. Her mother reserves her affection for her younger, live-in-lover, and for Waldo, Christine's teenage brother. Christine viciously takes out her angry feelings on her Barbies and on a weaker girl in her class. Then on a family holiday in Scotland, a tragic accident occurs for which Christine blames herself, and panic-stricken, she runs away with her four-year-old brother, and hides in the back of a stranger's car. Agnes Stam is an elderly Dutch spinster, making her annual summer pilgrimage to her family's holiday cottage on Mull. When she discover the little stowaways in her car, she fails to report the missing children and allows them to stay. And so a little girl with a big, guilty secret becomes a lonely old woman's salvation - and also her nemesis.

Reviews

A chilling and disturbing novel in which family represents the heart of darkness. * The Times *
Stark and gently funny, this is a tragic and lovely novel. * Guardian *
Reading the Dutch novelist Renate Dorrestein is an infallible reminder of how rare it is to find a gripping story about the old and the very young ... an effectively touching translation of a tale of three disregarded nobodies. * Independent Magazine *
Her novels read like film scripts...psychological thrillers in which what's most to be feared is closest to home...painfully cutting, and surprisingly funny...a truly courageous writer. * Independent *
Gripping and unexpected, dramatic yet understated ... well-crafted, moving and compelling tale. * Oxford Times *

Author Bio

Renate Dorrestein is one of Holland's best-loved novelists. Her books regularly win prizes and appear at the top of the Dutch bestseller lists. A Heart of Stone and Without Mercy, her previous novels published in English, are published by Black Swan as is her latest novel, A Crying Shame. .Hester Velman's translation of A Heart of Stone won the Vondel Prize for Translation in 2001.