The Child Thief: A Novel
Luka is a soldier turned reluctant farmer, living a hand-to-mouth existence in a small Soviet village with his wife and children. While hunting, he finds a strange, sick man pulling a sled holding the bodies of two young children. Everyone in this small village lives in fear of the Communists taking their homes and putting them on work farms, so a stranger in their midst causes a panic. The townspeople turn on Luka and hang the unconscious man, scaring Luka’s young niece and prompting her to flee. Or was she abducted? Luka sets off through the frozen wasteland with his twin teenage sons and the girl’s father to find the girl and the man who took her. The terrain is barely passable and the weather is brutal, but Luka soldiers on, killing when he has to but determined to bring the girl home. The tone in this tightly written story is dark and disturbing, with tension mounting steadily until the unexpected ending. Sure to appeal to fans of David Benioff and Tom Rob Smith. --Stacy Alesi