Review of THE STOLEN CHILD by Ann Hood

3 Stars 

 This book has a predictable plot with a few too many coincidences.

During World War I, Nick Burns was an American soldier in France. Camille Chastain, an artist, befriended him until one day, as the German’s advance, she thrust her paintings and her infant son Laurent into Nick’s arms and fled. Nick abandoned the child near a village well where he hoped someone would find him. Then in 1974, Nick is given a terminal cancer diagnosis; with only a few months to live, he decides to make one last effort to find out what happened to Laurent and his mother. He hires Jenny, a college dropout whose life has been derailed and who is desperate for adventure, to assist him. The two travel to Europe to begin their search.

The novel alternates between Nick and Jenny’s perspectives, but then a third viewpoint is added. We follow the story of Enzo Piccolo in Naples from the 1930s to the 1970s. Though he’s a master craftsman of Nativity figures, he also opens up a Museum of Tears in which he displays the vials of tears he collects from people. As expected, his story eventually connects with Nick and Jenny.

The major theme is that of regret. Nick has been haunted by life-long guilt and regret because of a choice he made as a young man. Nick observes, “Funny how at the end of your life you understand so much but you can’t undo any of it” and “How sad life was. When it was too late, you figured out everything you should have done.” Jenny makes a mistake that has altered her life forever. Enzo regrets letting his older brother Massimo always force him to do things he doesn’t want to do. Another character, Geraldine Walsh, regrets waiting too long to take decisive action.

There are plot holes and coincidences that really bothered me. How can someone travel from Europe to the U.S. without a passport? How can Daniel find Jenny’s hotel in Paris when he doesn’t even know she’s travelling? And that hotel knows how to find her in Rome? Of the 24 soldiers who might know what happened to Laurent, only three are alive and it is exactly those three who are the key to the puzzle! Geraldine is so much in love but it takes her years to finally act on her feelings? It’s a little too convenient that the film The Graduate is shown on the island of Capri just when needed. Actually the entire romance between Daniel and Jenny is a bit much, the stuff of a rom-com, not reality.

Though slow-paced, the book is entertaining, but the reader must be willing to suspend disbelief because the plot is contrived and there are too many coincidences to be believable. There are some attempts to make this a serious novel, but it actually has more romantic fluff than substance.