Claire Adam

"Published in Great Britain by Faber and Faber UK"--Title page verso.

A Novel

Golden Child

A heart-stirring novel about a mother’s love, in all its forms, as a woman searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption, from the prize-winning author of Golden Child “A beautiful story full of vibrance and heart . . . explores what it means to be a woman and what it means to love.”—Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers “Reads like a Claire Keegan story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.”—The Times, “Best Books to Take on Holiday This Summer” For much of her life, Dawn has felt as if something is missing. Now, at the age of fifty-eight, with a divorce behind her and her two grown-up sons busy with their own lives, she should be trying to settle into a new future for herself. But she keeps returning to the past and to the secret she’s kept all these years. At just sixteen, Dawn found herself pregnant, and—as was common in Trinidad back then—her parents sent her away to have the baby and give her up for adoption. More than forty years later, Dawn yearns to reconnect with her lost daughter. But tracking down her child is not as easy as she had thought. It’s an emotional journey that leads Dawn to retrace her steps—from Trinidad to Venezuela and then to London—and to question not only that fateful decision she’d made as a teenager but every turn in the road of her life since. Love Forms is a powerfully moving story of a woman in search of herself—a novel that rings with heartfelt empathy through the passages of a mother’s life, depicting the enduring bonds of love, family, and home.

Love Forms

At fifty-eight, with a divorce behind her and her two grown sons, Dawn should be trying to settle into a new future for herself. But she keeps returning to the past and the secret she's kept all these years. At just sixteen, Dawn found herself pregnant, and her parents sent her away to have the baby and give her up for adoption. More than forty years later, Dawn yearns to reconnect with her lost daughter. But tracking down her child is not easy. It's an emotional journey that leads Dawn to retrace her steps -- from Trinidad to Venezuela to London -- and to question not only that fateful decision she'd made as a teenager but every turn in the road of her life since.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025 'A quietly devastating masterpiece'. MARIAN KEYES 'Adam is a master storyteller.' SARA COLLINS ' Love Forms achieves a sort of alchemy.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Reads like a Claire Keegan short story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.' THE TIMES In the heart-aching new novel from the author of the award-winning Golden Child, a mother searches for the daughter she left behind a lifetime ago. Trinidad, 1980: Dawn Bishop, aged 16, leaves her home and journeys across the sea to Venezuela. There, she gives birth to a baby girl, and leaves her with nuns to be given up for adoption. Dawn tries to carry on with her life - a move to England, a marriage, a career, two sons, a divorce - but through it all, she still thinks of the child she had in Venezuela, and of what might have been. Then, forty years later, a woman from an internet forum gets in touch. She says that she might be Dawn's long-lost daughter, stirring up a complicated mix of feelings: could this be the person to give form to all the love and care a mother has left to offer? 'From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. An utterly arresting tale of love and grief, of the wounding and healing powers of family, of the many guises of a mother's love. It's an absolute triumph.' SARA COLLINS 'Exquisitely written. A compelling and tender story of what - and who - is hidden in almost every family that feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary.' MONIQUE ROFFEY 'An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength.' CLAIRE KILROY 'A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places.' ROMESH GUNESEKERA

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025

Num bairro pobre da ilha caribenha de Trinidad e Tobago, Clyde tenta construir um futuro para sua família. Ele é pai dos gêmeos Peter e Paul. Geneticamente, eles são idênticos. Em caráter e comportamento, porém, são completamente diferentes. Peter é o filho prendado. Desde pequeno, se destacou pela inteligência e pelas notas altas. Seu pai espera que ele ganhe um prêmio que lhe permitirá estudar nos Estados Unidos. Já Paul é um garoto cheio de limitações. Aos treze anos, perambula pelas ruas em meio a devaneios e quer distância dos livros. Seu sonho é arrumar um emprego, viver de jeans e óculos escuros, e dar o restante do dinheiro para a mãe. Até que uma noite Paul desaparece. E Clyde sai pela ilha em busca de seu garoto problema. Mas qual exatamente é seu problema? Paul é um garoto sensível. É tímido, não gosta da escola, das provas, e tem medo do pai. Paul tem aulas particulares com um padre. E, por intermédio dele, percebemos que talvez as limitações estejam mais nos olhos da família do que no garoto. Em sua fixação pelo futuro do seu menino de ouro, Clyde concentra todas as energias em trabalhar e parece não ter tempo para questionar suas certezas. Conforme o tempo passa, Clyde começa a descobrir algumas verdades sobre Trinidad, sobre sua família e sobre si mesmo. E será forçado a tomar uma decisão. Menino de ouro é um livro raro, capaz de fazer um mergulho vertical e delicado nos dilemas de uma família pobre e embrutecida, e ao mesmo tempo manter o leitor grudado em cada página, como num thriller dos mais eletrizantes. No fim das contas, qual dos dois era o menino de ouro?

Menino de ouro

A new novel from Sarah Jessica Parker's imprint, SJP for Hogarth: a deeply affecting debut novel set in Trinidad, following the lives of a family as they navigate impossible choices about scarcity, loyalty, and love "Golden Child is a stunning novel written with force and beauty. Though true to herself, Adam's work stands tall beside icons of her tradition like V.S. Naipaul."--Jennifer Clement, author of Gun Love 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. Like the Trinidadian landscape itself, GOLDEN CHILD is both beautiful and unsettling; a resoundingly human story of aspiration, betrayal, and love.

Claire Adam

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