Byatt has painted her large cast of characters so richly that we care about all of them. Her adult subjects, she writes, 'saw, in a way that earlier generations had not, that children were people, with identities and desiresâ€¦.but they saw this out of a desire of their own for perpetual childhood.' World War I forces everyone to grow up. Byatt's concern is the vast area where utopian visions collide with human nature. Nesbit, but this is no mere roman Ã clef. The gothic sexual interconnections recall Bloomsbury, and Olive is clearly a gloss on E.

As the narrative unfolds, we see the dark side of these idealists' lives. She takes in a working-class boy who longs to make art, and connects him with a master potter whose family belongs to the Wellwoods' progressive, artistic circle. As the novel opens in 1895, Olive Wellwood seems the model New Woman: popular author of books that reinvent fairy tales for contemporary children, tolerant wife to Fabian Society stalwart Humphry, devoted mother pregnant with her seventh baby. The deeper subject, however, is the complex, not always benign bond that attaches children to adults. Byatt encompasses the paradigm shift from Victorian to modern England in a sweeping tale of four families. 'Ambitious, accomplished and intelligent. It is a masterly literary achievement by one of our most essential writers. Taking us from the cliff-lined shores of England to Paris, Munich, and the trenches of the Somme,The Children's Bookis a deeply affecting story of a singular family, played out against the great, rippling tides of the day. But their personal struggles, their hidden desires, will soon be eclipsed by far greater forces, as the tides turn across Europe and a golden era comes to an end. As these lives-of adults and children alike-unfold, lies are revealed, hearts are broken, and the damaging truth about the Wellwoods slowly emerges. But the joyful bacchanals Olive hosts at her rambling country house-and the separate, private books she writes for each of her seven children-conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined.

When Olive Wellwood's oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of the new Victoria and Albert Museum-a talented working-class boy who could be a character out of one of Olive's magical tales-she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize A spellbinding novel, at once sweeping and intimate, from the Booker Prizewinning author ofPossession,that spans the Victorian era through the World War I years, and centers around a famous children's book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the people she loves.

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt