The Stolen Child

Henry was an unhappy little boy who one day decides to run away from home into the neighboring woods. Unknown to Henry, a wild bunch of fairy children had been spying on him and his family. His entrance into the woods gives them the perfect opportunity to make the switch. The fairy children are actually changelings, who kidnap unsuspecting children and send one of their own, an impostor, to take their place in the home.

Henry is now renamed Aniday and he finds himself with these children, being taught the changeling ways and forbidden to go home. The new changeling Henry struggles to integrate himself into his new family, hoping that no one realizes the switch. But as time goes on, both the changeling Henry and Aniday begin to forget their past lives. As Aniday ages mentally but not physically, he questions why he was chosen to be taken and desires to learn more about the family he left behind. At the same time, Henry grows into adulthood but struggles with suppressed memories of a childhood of German heritage before he even became a changeling.

Told by both Henry the changeling and Aniday in alternating chapters, The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue is a beautifully written fantasy novel. Even though I felt the chapters with Aniday were at first a bit slow, they eventually picked up and didn’t deter me from my overall enjoyment with the book. The author blends fantasy and realism seamlessly and I quickly became emotionally involved with both Anidayand Henry. The book is frequently haunting, sometimes sad andultimately un-put-downable.

Memory, which so confounds our waking life with anticipation and regret, may well be our one true earthly consolation when time slips out of joint.

Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife said “The Stolen Child is unsentimental and vividly imagined. Keith Donohue evokes the otherwordly with humor and the ordinary with wonder.” I think she hit the nail on the head with this quote. The Stolen Child is simply a great book.

Keith Donohue just came out with another book, Angels of Destruction, and if it’s anything like his first one, I am sure it must be a winner. This was the second book I read for Carl V.’s Once Upon a Time Challenge.

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