An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a childâs fate in this moving, page-turning novel from âa gifted storytellerâ (PEOPLE).
For decades, Nick Burns has been haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, when a French artist heâd befriended thrust both her paintings and her baby into his handsâand disappeared. In 1974, with only months left to live, Nick enlists Jenny, a college dropout desperate for adventure, to help him unravel the mystery. The journey leads them through Parisian galleries and provincial towns to a surprising place: the Museum of Tears, the lifeâs work of a lonely Italian craftsman. Determined to find the baby and the artist, hopeless romantic Jenny and curmudgeonly Nick must reckon with regret, betrayal, and the lives theyâve left behind.
With characteristic warmth and verve, Ann Hood captures a world of possibility and romance through the eyes of a young woman learning to claim her place in it. The Stolen Child is an engaging, timeless novel of secrets, love lost and found, and the nature of forgiveness.
âThis is a lovely story about two artists meeting in the midst of World War I, a missing baby, and an intelligent, lost young woman helping an old man fix the mistakes of his past. I loved Nick and Jenny from the moment I met them, and had all my fingers crossed that they would find not only what they were looking for, but themselves.ââAnn Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful