The Child's Child: Library Edition

from SamSattler

The Child's Child, published in 2012, was the last novel Ruth Rendell wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. After that, she would write only one Inspector Wexford novel and two standalones before her death at age 85 in 2015. One of the most interesting things about The Child's Child is that it ...

from pdebolt

This book-within-a-book concept is relevant within the context of the plot, although the "inside book" is more interesting by far. The treatment of unwed mothers and gay men is difficult to read, and we can only hope that we have gone way beyond such harsh judgements in the 21st century. Maud is ...

from smik

Two fairly parallel stories, history repeating itself. Also a novel about how social conventions have changed over a century. For example our attitudes to homosexuality have changed, as they have to unmarried mothers. There is a suggestion made that the attitudes changed around the same time. The...

from rvhatha

I am an enormous fan of Ruth Rendell, and have always especially enjoyed the suspense novels she writes under the name of Barbara Vine. My favorite is _Anna's Book_ (published as _Asta's Book_ in the UK), a brilliant story-within-a-story that weaves rich connections between the diary of the main ...

from Schatje

This book has two parallel plots of unmarried pregnant women living with their gay brothers. In the contemporary story, Grace Easton becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with her brother's lover. Understandably, tension arises between Grace and her brother, and she takes refuge in her thesis ...