The Wish Child is a love letter of sorts to the city of Berlin, a love letter and a lament for what children in particular must endure to survive a war like WWII
A widely appealing and accessible historical novel, this would be an excellent Costco Pennie's Pick or Target Club Pick title
For fans of The Book Thief and its focus on the transformative power of language, The Wish Child offers a darker take on this theme, more concerned with the ways in which language can be used to manipulate and deceive rather than to redeem.
Also for readers who were moved by the sometimes fable-like nature of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and by that novel's powerful twist or "reveal, " and for fans of The Lovely Bones, as The Wish Child is infused with a similar wistful melancholy.
It is a personal, family story on one level, but in addition to this it addresses larger historical and social questions about culpability and the nature of evil.
The Wish Child, an international bestseller, has won several awards, most recently the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award. Chidgey has also won both the prestigious Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize and the Katherine Mansfield Award. She has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, and her second novel, Golden Deeds, was a NYT Notable Book of the Year