The Wish Child, Paperback

WINNER OF THE ACORN FOUNDATION FICTION PRIZE AT THE OCKHAM NEW ZEALAND BOOK AWARDS

"A remarkable book with a stunningly original twist." --The Times (London)

This international bestselling historical novel follows two children and a mysterious narrator as they navigate the falsehoods and wreckage of WW II Germany

Germany, 1939. As Germany's hope for a glorious future begins to collapse, two children, Sieglinde and Erich, find temporary refuge in an abandoned theater amid the rubble of Berlin. Outside, white bedsheets hang from windows; all over the city, people are talking of surrender. The days Sieglinde and Erich spend together will shape the rest of their lives.

Watching over them is the wish child, the enigmatic narrator of their story. He sees what they see, he feels what they feel, yet his is a voice that comes from deep inside the ruins of a nation's dream.

CATHERINE CHIDGEY's debut novel, In a Fishbone Church, was long-listed for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, The Strength of the Sun, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Sunday Express called her third novel, The Transformation, "a highly original read, as beautiful as it is terrifying." Chidgey is the recipient of the 2017 Janet Frame Fiction Prize and lives in Ngaruawahia, New Zealand.