THE SWEET RELIEF OF MISSING CHILDREN
In New York City, a girl called Lenora vanishes without a trace. Years earlier and miles upstate, Goldie, a wild, negligent mother, searches for a man to help raise her precocious son, Paul, who later discovers that the only way to save his soul is to run away. The Sweet Relief of Missing Children is a suspenseful novel about the power of running and the desire for reinvention. It explores the terror and transcendence of our most central experiences: childhood, parenthood, sex, love.
In New York City, a girl called Lenora vanishes without a trace. Years earlier and miles upstate, Goldie, a wild, negligent mother, searches for a man to help raise her precocious son, Paul, who later discovers that the only way to save his soul is to run away. The Sweet Relief of Missing Children is a suspenseful novel about the power of running and the desire for reinvention. It explores the terror and transcendence of our most central experiences: childhood, parenthood, sex, love.
- W. W. Norton
- Paperback
- February 2012
- 384 Pages
- 9780393340754
Buy the Book
$15.95
About Sarah Braunstein
Sarah Braunstein is the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award and was named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35.” She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in Portland, Maine.
Praise
“[Braunstein’s] debut novel in an unsettling read that is also strangely compelling . . . . Through random encounters and elliptical dialogue, Braunstein locates the pain in these people’s lives and makes it shimmer.”—Booklist
“A complex and multifaceted study of children who conquer bad childhoods—and children who cannot . . . . Braunstein paints gorgeous portraits of a large variety of characters, all fully realized.”—Library Journal
"A magnificent debut filled with characters so vivid, strange, and richly imagined, you emerge feeling changed."—Sarah Shun-lien Bynum