Ghost's Child

Publishers Weekly

Hartnett (Surrender) introduces an unlikely protagonist for a one-of-a-kind love story. When 75-year-old Matilda Victoria Adelaide, or Maddy, comes home to find a mysterious boy awaiting her, she thinks it "odd, but also somehow flattering, as when a stray cat chooses your house to call home." She tells him about her youth and about falling in love. Thus begins a tale that revels in profound questions ("How... does one craft sturdy happiness out of something as important, as complicated, as unrepeatable and as easily damaged as a life?"; "What is the world's most beautiful thing?"; is life "settling for what you can get, if you can't have what you really want?") and Maddy's tireless pursuit of their answers as they unfold through her relationship with Feather, a youth who captures her heart so totally that she is forever changed. Those who enjoy fables or magical realism will be spellbound by this redemptive story of a search for love, love lost and love (of a sort) found again. If the emotional distance created by the narrative frame proves a barrier for other readers, the exquisite prose may yet hold them. Ages 14-up. (Oct.)

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KLIATT - Cara Chancellor

A blond boy with gray eyes was the last person Matilda expected to see on her settee when she returned from walking her dog. She suspects she knows why he's there, but seemingly his only interest is hearing about the time when Matilda was known as Maddy and loved a boy named Feather. As Matilda's tale unfolds, the reader tiptoes into a narrative so introspective and dream-like that one can never be sure at what point it becomes fantasy. Maddy's life holds love, loss, and a burning question that sent her on a quest over the waves…and now brings her back to her living room. The Ghost's Child is written in the ethereal, fluid style of a Virginia Woolf novel, in which the steam curling off a cup of tea seems as fantastical as speaking with the West Wind. Even so, Hartnett maintains a consistent pace throughout that banishes tedium and accepts unquestioningly the story's gradual immersion into fantasy. Both a cozy cottage read and a critical conundrum as to how much of Maddy's story transpires within her own mind, The Ghost's Child is a delightful tale that goes as deep as the reader is willing to look. Reviewer: Cara Chancellor

VOYA - Carlisle K. Webber

Matilda, raised by an understanding if distant father and a hypercritical mother, has traveled the world in search of beauty but ultimately finds it not far from home. Beauty and love come to her in the form of Feather, a man who is content to live on the beach and cannot stand any sort of cage. When Feather leaves her, Matilda sails the world to ask him a question. Upon learning the answer, Matilda knows she must make a new life for herself. She becomes a doctor and continues her global journey, and although time soothes the sorrow of losing Feather, she never forgets her first love or what he gave her. Using vivid descriptions and unusual words, Hartnett creates a fable recognizable to any reader of fairy tales. Reminiscent of East of the Sun and West of the Moon, this story of a princess, a quest, and the crumbling of a dream marriage addresses ideas of personal freedom and finding one's own peace. Matilda's environment, though obviously set right before World War II, has a once-upon-a-time veil of otherworldliness over it. Feather's impact on Matilda's life is at once seen and felt, and the ending will satisfy both those who want a happily-ever-after and those who like a tearjerker. Although the reader can finish this small book in a few hours, the impact of the story will last much longer. Reviewer: Carlisle K. Webber

Children's Literature - Paula McMillen

Australian author Sonya Hartnett considers what makes life meaningful in this lovely, lyrical book. Is it love, beauty or deeds well done? We watch Maddy grow, in a big house bought by a successful industrialist, under the domination of a conventional and materialistic mother. Then, surprisingly, her father asks her "What is the most beautiful thing in the world?" Maddy cannot satisfactorily answer the question—the answer, from her father's point of view, is Maddy herself—and so their trip begins. But Maddy's true joy comes when she encounters a wild and mysterious boy on the beach near their house. She loves everything about him, and she eventually persuades her parents to let her marry. She and the fellow she calls "Feather" take up residence in the woods in a tiny cabin, surrounded only by nature; nevertheless, Feather seems to grow less alive every day. There is a brief reprise when Maddy becomes pregnant, but they suffer a crushing loss when she miscarries. Feather leaves, and Maddy sets sail, on her own, to find him. Her trip is a success, but the life of peace and solitude he has embraced on the Island of Stillness is not for her. Maddy returns home to become a nurse during the Great War and then, because she cannot imagine how awful it would be not to see the beauty of the world, a famous eye doctor. The story is told as reflection, to a 12-year-old boy who is waiting for Matilda one day when she and her dog return from their walk. He is the age she has most often imagined her lost child to be, and he has come to accompany the now aged Matilda on her final journey. Throughout the story, Maddy sails from what we conventionally call reality to imagined places—orare they? The language is beautiful, even poetic at times in its surprising and evocative turns of phrase and feeling. This is not a book for those seeking action-packed adventures, but will satisfy readers who like pondering the big questions. Reviewer: Paula McMillen, Ph.D.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up

Reality quickly gives way to fantastical fable in this story of an old woman who returns home from walking her dog to find a strange boy in her lounge room, where she gives him tea and tells him the story of her life. A lonely child of wealthy parents, Matilda/Maddy encounters a ragged, wild young man on the beach near her home. She names him Feather and they fall in love and conceive a child, but she miscarries. In trying to tame Feather, Maddy loses him, too, and, despairing, she attempts to drown herself in a pond, to be rescued by Feather, who then leaves for good. But Maddy learns to sail and embarks alone on a dangerous sea journey to find him, only to finally acknowledge that their fragile love cannot sustain a life together. Sailing back to her old life, she later becomes a doctor and humanitarian. As her story ends, it is apparent that the boy is her never-born child who has come to accompany her passing to the next world. Lyrical writing, heavy with visual imagery and touched with euphemism, creates an ethereal mood, but the story is not served well by the fantastical elements. Maddy's journey brings her face to face with talking sea creatures, a floating mosque, a battle between a kraken and a leviathan, and Zephyrus, who guides her to the savage island where she confronts Feather and the loss of love. Neither fish nor fowl, this romance may nevertheless find a readership with older fantasy lovers.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

Kirkus Reviews

Told in gorgeous prose that reads more like poetry, the elderly Matilda relates the story of her life to a young boy she finds in her parlor one day. A sensitive child, she grew up distanced from her parents until her father, as a coming-of-age gift, took her on an extended tour of the world in search of the single most beautiful thing. After returning home, she eventually began an uncertain relationship with an unworldly young man she met on the beach; she appropriately named him Feather. He abandoned his wild ways and moved into a cottage with her, but was never capable of loving Maddy as she did him. She never lost her awareness that his nature was too ephemeral for a long-term love affair, marring her happiness. As readers move through this lush fable they may begin to get a sense of the real identity of the boy in Maddy's parlor. The relative brevity of the story belies the depth it encompasses; it's a richly crafted tale-within-a-tale, worthy of repeated reading. (Fiction. 12 & up)