Showing results for "Child by Child" in Coming of Age

Meet Hickey, an American school teacher in his late 30s, an American school teacher who burns his bridges with the school board and goes to Africa as an aid worker. Working for an agency in Nairobi, one of his jobs is to drive food and medical supplies to Southern Sudan to an aid station run by Ruth, a middle-aged woman, who acts as nurse, doctor, hospice worker, feeder of starving children, and witness. Ruth is gruff but efficient, and Hickey, who is usually drawn to youth and beauty, is struck by her devotion. Returning to Nairobi, he can’t forget what he has seen.

From one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, The Neapolitan Novels is an exploration of the friendship between Lila and Lena, two bright young girls who grew up in the tough, rough streets of postwar Naples. This is no normal friendship; it's a friendship that loves, hurts, supports and destroys - and yet it is one that lasts a lifetime. These four full-cast BBC adaptations bring the streets of Naples vividly to life.

The heartbreaking and compelling new audiobook set in a Victorian workhouse from the author of The Orphans of Halfpenny Street. When Lucy and her brother, Joshua, are orphaned, it falls to Joshua to provide for them both, but he is barely into his teens and, in his naivety, falls prey to bad influences and drink. Lucy is desperate to avoid the workhouse, but when Joshua loses their meagre savings they are thrown out onto the street, and, in dire poverty, it isn’t long before Lucy finds herself at its gates - almost a fate worse than death.

Childhood’s Eternal Light follows a quiet soul returning to a hometown that no longer fits its old map. In the attic’s dust and a river that remembers every skipped stone, the narrator pieces together a mosaic of first friendships, small betrayals, and the one luminous summer that seemed to last forever. As past and present braid together, ordinary objects—an enamel cup, a scratched vinyl, a kite snagged in a tree—turn into lanterns that guide the way through grief, love, and the long echo of choices we didn’t know we were making.

The first instalment of a page-turning trilogy set against the backdrop of the English Civil War. September 1625: Plague cart driver, Matthew Neave, is sent to pick up the corpse of a baby. Yet, on the way to the plague pit, he hears a cry – the baby is alive. A plague child himself, and now...

Romilly lives in a ramshackle house with her eccentric artist father and her cat, Monty. She knows little about her past - but she knows that she is loved. When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring her as the main character, everything changes: exotic foods appear on the table, her father appears on TV and strangers appear at their door, convinced the books contain a treasure hunt leading to a glittering prize.

The day we lost Josh, a part of me broke. He was only three-and-a-half years old. His twin, Ruby, suddenly an only child. But then I see him too. A boy with Josh's same pale blue eyes, the silvery-white hair that falls across his forehead in exactly the same way. I know I have to listen to my rational brain, that this must be my grief messing with my mind. But I can't let go of the feeling that something is going on. Who is this boy? And does someone know more than they're letting on?

A timeless coming-of-age tale of heartbreak and triumph set in South Africa at the dawn of apartheid. Persomi is young, white, and poor, born the middle child of illiterate sharecroppers on the prosperous Fourie farm in the South African Bushveld. Persomi’s world is extraordinarily small. She...

Beginning in 1950s Liverpool, Violet's Children is a warm and nostalgic story of a young woman who must adopt her sister's children after tragedy strikes. 

In a polygamist commune in the desert, a 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl fall in love and consummate that love, breaking religious law. They are caught, and a year later, she gives birth to his father's child while the boy commits murder 400 miles away - a crime that will slowly unravel the community. 

Twenty years ago, Oona left the island of Inis for the very first time. A wind-blasted rock of fishing boats and turf fires, where girls stayed in their homes until they became mothers, the island was a gift for some, a prison for others. Oona was barely more than a girl, but she promised herself she would leave the tall tales behind and never return. Rich, haunting, and rooted in Irish folklore, The Island Child is a spellbinding debut novel about identity and motherhood, freedom and fate, and the healing power of stories.

“The innocence of childhood collides with the stark aftermath of war in this wrenching and ultimately redemptive tale of family, seemingly impossible choices, and the winding paths to destiny, which sometimes take us to places far beyond our imaginings.” – Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times...

Raised in a privileged community of wealthy survivalists on an idyllic, self-sustaining Oregon ranch, Marlo has always been insulated. The outside world, which the ranchers call “the Disaster”, is a casualty of ravaging climate change, a troubled landscape on the brink of catastrophe. For as long as Marlo can remember, the unknown that lies beyond the borders of her utopia has been a curious obsession. But just as she plans her escape into the chaos of the real world, a charismatic new resident gives her a compelling reason to stay.

Lori Lee Guy had always longed to be someone's mommy—and she had never imagined wild and wicked Rick Warrick as anyone's daddy. But here she was, childless. And here he was, still sinfully sexy—and single-handedly raising an adorable little girl.

Left on the steps of an orphanage when she was just days old, Nancy Sunday was brought up in hardship—until the kindly Rosalind Carey took her in. Now 18 years old, Nancy is an adopted member of the Carey family. But she can’t help wondering who her parents really were. When Nancy is sent away to finishing school, she finds herself in the midst of London society. There she meets Freddie Ashton—kind and warm-hearted, he might just be the man of Nancy’s dreams. But she knows his wealthy parents would never let him marry a penniless foundling.

You know what's best for your child. Don't you? Riley Pieterson is an adventurous girl with lots of questions. There's plenty she doesn't know yet: What a human brain looks like. All the constellations in the night sky. Why others can't see her the way she sees herself. When Riley confides in her parents - Sally and Theo - that she feels uncomfortable in her own skin, a chain of events begins that changes their lives forever. Sally wants to support her daughter by helping her be who she dreams of being. Theo resists; he thinks Riley is a seven-year-old child pushing boundaries. 

A sweeping saga in the vein of Ask Again, Yes following a foster family through almost a decade of dazzling triumph and wrenching heartbreak—from the author of The Orphans at Race Point. Set in the late 1950s through 1960s in a small town in Massachusetts, All the Children Are Home follows the...

animates life in her Small Town in 1980s southwestern Ethiopia. She arrives like a flash flood; unexpected, strong-willed, roaring. Selam and her father listen to the radio in secret as the socialist military junta seizes properties and wages civil war in the North. Meanwhile her mother, the powerful and relentlessly dignified Degitu, embraces a persecuted Pentecostal God as she gets sicker. Once an enterprising, landowning family, now they are ostracised under the new regime, and Selam grows up seeking revenge on despotic comrades, neighbourhood bullies and a ruthless God.

All it takes is one message for Gemma’s life to fall apart. A confirmation of all she’s feared these last few months. Jack was supposed to be preparing for their new start in Australia, building their home, building their life together. And now this. Gone. Without a trace. Leaving their perfect world – all that their two-year-old daughter, Poppy, knows – shattered. Crystal comes into Gemma’s life at the opportune moment. This new friend, who’s been through it before, who knows how it feels for all of your hopes and dreams to suddenly implode, who wants to help, who will do anything…

Join twenty-four-year-old Tara Walker on a poignant odyssey as she unearths her secret journal, a powerful testament to her life's trials and tribulations. From her raw, often harrowing childhood, marred by addiction, alcoholism, and predators, to the unwavering support of her hardworking parents, Tara's inspiring journey unfolds. Through adversity and rejection, she emerges as a resilient, intelligent young woman who confronts her traumatic past with unwavering determination, ultimately embracing the true meaning of life, happiness, family, and unconditional love.