The Children’s House

Marina and her husband, Jacob, were both born on a kibbutz in Israel, but they met years later at university in California, when Jacob is a successful psychiatrist with a young son from a disastrous marriage.

Outside their house in Harlem, Marina encounters Constance, a Rwandan refugee, and her toddler, Gabriel. Constance and Gabriel become dependent on Marina; and her bond with the little boy intensifies.

When Marina receives disturbing news about her long-disappeared mother, she leaves New York. As Christmas nears, her tight-knit family and Constance and Gabriel join Marina in her mother’s former home, with a startling consequence.

Praised by Stephanie Bishop as a book of ‘unwavering intelligence’, by Leah Kaminsky as ‘art at its highest’ and a ‘story of melancholy beauty’ and by Helen Atkinson for the way in which it highlights how ‘we are all some mother’s child’, Alice Nelson’s debut novel is a stunning tale of love and hope.