Child of the Red Land

by Cécile Drouin

Hardcover - first edition. Jacket unclipped with minor shelfwear and a few faint scores and scuffs to the laminate. The pages are clean and sound, with clear text. Translated from the French by Jan Dalley. CM

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in a day and a half. Mesmorising. Story told through the eyes of a neglected and abused child in an upper middle class family. Though set in a particular time and place it could be the story of any child unfortunate enough to be bought up in a family that dismissed them as unworthy of love or care on the most basic of levels showing one face as loving parent when outside the home and in the public and another cruel and violent behind the doors of the family home. Also baring through the eyes and voice of a child and of Thi Ba, the Indochinese nanny employed by her parents to care for her, and the street people she often escaped to sit with how ridiculous the behaviour of white people as a whole was that for me rang uncomfortably true. A gem of a book.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

my first year in college, while helping a newfound friend met move into her new dorm room, we fond this little book under her mattress. With nothing else to do during those first few days I took it back to my own still empty room and began reading. A child's tale of loneliness, rejection and love, from the hot, primeval universe of Asia to the cold and sterile environment of European capitals.