Golden Child: A Novel [J0172]

2019 - HCDJ Excellent condition. Rural Trinidad: a brick house on stilts surrounded by bush; a family, quietly surviving, just trying to live a decent life. Clyde, the father, works long, exhausting shifts at the petroleum plant in southern Trinidad; Joy, his wife, looks after the home. Their two sons, thirteen years old, wake early every morning to travel to the capital, Port of Spain, for school. They are twins but nothing alike: Paul has always been considered odd, while Peter is widely believed to be a genius, destined for greatness. When Paul goes walking in the bush one afternoon and doesn't come home, Clyde is forced to go looking for him, this child who has caused him endless trouble already, and who he has never really understood. And as the hours turn to days, and Clyde begins to understand Paul's fate, his world shatters--leaving him faced with a decision no parent should ever have to make.

From recent-ish Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "I love the way she writes. This book was heartbreaking"; "You're the parents of twins - one academically brilliant, the other with learning difficulties - and you live on a crime-infested island in the Caribbean. There is no state-funded education. The basis for a heart-wrenching dilemma. A thought-provoking novel that will stay with you."; "A sad but very good novel. It is the story about a Hindu family consisting of father, mother and two sons, who are twins, living on the island of Trinidad. The story is being told by the point of view of the father, one of the sons and a Roman Catholic priest. It shows a bit of common life on the island, family connections, expectations and disappointments."