The Lost Son

(Paperback)

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Description

How does a mother survive the unsurvivable After her husband and the baby's nurse kidnap her infant son, Nicholas, and take him back to their native Germany, Julia Kruse must completely rebuild her life in America. The Lost Son chronicles Julia's journey from Depression-Era Queens, NY through World War II as she struggles to provide for herself and her remaining son, Johannes. Over the years, her search for Nicholas is thwarted at every turn, until she falls in love with chauffeur Paul Burns, whose boss might have the political connections to find her son and bring him home from the German front during the last days of the Third Reich, where Johannes is also fighting for the Allies.

Reviews

"Evocative and suspenseful, The Lost Son is a finely-crafted novel about a mother's desperate quest to be reunited with her youngest child. The propulsive narrative moves effortlessly across geography and time. Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction. Vanderslice artfully plumbs the depths of regret and the stubborn optimism that glimmers in the most resilient of souls." Heather Bell Adams, author of Maranatha Road and The Good Luck Stone
" The Lost Son is an unflinching look at how one woman, and her two sons, reinvent themselves against a backdrop of violence and violation. Julia is unstoppable as she grapples with her present and her past. The search for her long-lost son, and the fallout resulting from his recovery, produce (to use Julia's words) a study in 'all the ways love and family can go wrong.' And yet, Julia triumphs. I loved this book." Benjamin Ludwig, author of Ginny Moon

Author Bio

Stephanie Vanderslice's essays have been included in books and journals such as Creative Writing Studies, New Writing, Profession, Teaching Creative Writing and The Creative Writing Handbook. Her prose has also appeared in Mothers in All But Name, Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in their 40's and many others. With Kelly Ritter, she edited Can It Really Be Taught: Resisting Lore in the Teaching of Creative Writing (Heinemann, 2007), and wrote Teaching Creative Writing to Undergraduates: A Resource and Guide, (Fountainhead Press 2011). Her most recent book is Rethinking Creative Writing: Programs and Practices that Work (Professional and Higher)has been hailed as brave, iconoclastic and entertaining. Stephanie also blogs about creative writing, books and academia at The Huffington post as well as at wordamour.wordpress.com, a blog about reading, writing, and teaching writing with a little 21st century family life thrown in. She holds a BA from Connecticut College, an MFA from George Mason University and a Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and is associate professor of writing at the University of Central Arkansas. Recommended reads include Nicole Krauss's Great House, Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, and Jesse Lee Kercheval's The Museum of Happiness. Stephanie lives in Conway, Arkansas with her husband, writer John Vanderslice (no, not the indie songster) and two sons.