January 27, 2020
In Alexander’s uneven debut, a wealthy Louisiana family loses its youngest child and resorts to extreme measures in an attempt to heal. While visiting their Louisiana lake house in 1913, seven-year-old George Davenport and six-year-old Paul return from a walk in the woods without their four-year-old brother, Sonny. Their father, John Henry
, spends the next two years chasing dead ends in search of answers about Sonny, while his wife, Mary, grieves and the older boys remain quiet about how they’d told Sonny to run away. In 1915, pregnant Grace Mill works as a maid in Magnolia, Miss. As she prepares for her new baby, she asks Gideon Wolf, who does odd jobs, to take her four-year-old mute son, Ned, for a few weeks. Gideon agrees, but doesn’t return when he was supposed to, and Grace later learns of his arrest in Louisiana for kidnapping Ned, whom the Davenports have identified as Sonny. They know that he is not their son, but they pull strings to claim him anyway. In Alexander’s didactic, black-and-white narrative of class injustice, Grace can’t possibly win when the rich decide they want something. While Alexander pulls off a truly horrific ending, what starts out as a strong narrative devolves into a flat melodrama with cartoony caricatures of the spoiled and wealthy Davenports. The narrative’s lack of moral complexity is a real turn-off. Agent: Natasha Solumun, Jacinta Di Mase Management.
March 1, 2020
Inspired by a true story, Alexander's debut centers on the disappearance in 1913 of four-year-old Sonny Davenport from his wealthy family's lake house in Louisiana. That prompts a months-long search on the part of his anguished parents, with the family offering increasingly large rewards for the safe return of their son. Despite rumors of a child Sonny's age seen traveling with a drifter, his disappearance remains unresolved. Two years later, though, when a child Sonny's age appears in the company of a tramp, Sonny's parents, despite their initial doubts as to the identity of this child, claim him as their own. An unmarried farm worker soon appears in town, however, claiming this boy is her own missing son, and two conflicting stories dramatically come to a head at the kidnapping trial of the tramp. Despite initially slow pacing, this is ultimately a thought-provoking story of privilege and lies, featuring a page-turning albeit possibly frustrating conclusion. Hand this to readers looking for a conversation-starting book club pick.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)