The Child

“Schulman crafts a piercing investigation into desire, mores, and the law.”—Publishers Weekly

“An important work of American literature. That this is probably not how the book will be handled, reviewed, shelved, sold and read makes the novel all the more necessary and true.”—Lambda Book Report

“Sarah Schulman is one our most articulate observers.”—The Advocate

“In true Schulman form, the book has a gleaming intelligence and chilled anger. It’s beautifully blunt and plainspoken.”—L.A. Weekly

“A thought-provoking story on a controversial subject. . . . To her credit, Schulman forces the reader to question common societal assumptions.”—Library Journal

The Child, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, is the eleventh and perhaps most controversial book by acclaimed lesbian writer Sarah Schulman, available for the first time in paperback. This novel explores the parameters of queer teen sexuality against a backdrop of hysteria and sanctioned homophobia, based on the 1997 sexual assault and murder of an eleven-year-old boy by a fifteen-year-old.

Stew is a lonely teen who discovers love on an adult website. But when his older boyfriend is arrested in an Internet pedophilia sting, his proclivities are revealed to his family and friends, to his horror. Devastated by these revelations and left to fend for himself, he ends up committing murder.

Brazen and daring in its themes, The Child is a powerful indictment of sex panic in America, and a plaintive meditation on isolation and desire.

First time in paperback: Sarah Schulman's acclaimed and controversial 2007 novel.

Publishers Weekly

The age of consent provides the flash point for Schulman's disturbing eighth novel (after 1998's Shimmer). The online activities of Stew Mulcahey-15, gay and troubled-lead him straight into the arms of David Ziemska, 39, and his lover, Joe. The two are subsequently arrested for child molestation. Schulman, a noted playwright and gay and lesbian rights activist, examines, with unflinching precision, the aftermath for Stew-his unhappy relationship with his family and the mental deterioration that leads to the senseless murder of Victor, Stew's young nephew. But if Stew is tried as an adult for murder, should the child molestation charge against David and Joe be dismissed? David's gay lawyer, Hockey Notkin, who's struggling with AIDS, turns for help to longtime friend and fellow lawyer, Eve Krasner, who's depressed, estranged from her partner and worried about cancer. Schulman crafts a piercing investigation into desire, mores and the law. (June)

Sarah Schulman is the author of eleven previous books, including eight novels, the latest being The Child (2006). As a journalist, her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, and Interview. She has won a Guggenheim Fellowship and two American Library Association Gay & Lesbian Book Awards. She lives in New York.