Golden Child (Adam) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
In fluid and uncluttered prose, Golden Child weaves an enveloping portrait of an insular social order in which the claustrophobic support of family and neighbors coexists with an omnipresent threat from the same corners.
Jan Stuart - New York Times Book Review


[An] emotionally potent debut novel… with a spare, evocative style, Adam (a Trinidad native) evokes the island’s complexity during the mid-'80s, when the novel is mostly set: the tenuous relationship between Hindus like Clyde’s family and the twins’ Catholic schoolmaster, assassinations and abductions hyped by lurid media headlines, resources that attract carpetbagging oil companies but leave the country largely impoverished.
USA Today


Golden Child is a beautiful and haunting tale, one that leaves readers thinking long after the last page has been turned.
Associated Press


This book manages to combine two things rarely bound together in the same spine: a sensitive depiction of family life and the page-flicking urgency of a thriller.
Guardian (UK)


This is a tough, original novel of remarkable poise and confidence.
Economist (UK)


[A] powerful debut… a devastating family portrait—and a fascinating window into Trinidadian society.
People


★ Adam’s excellent debut explores a dark and haunting Sophie’s Choice-like dilemma…. Throughout this stunning portrait of Trinidad… and one family’s sacrifices, soaring hopes and ultimate despair, Adam weaves a poetic lightness and beauty that will transfix readers.
Publishers Weekly


The novel starts off slowly but gains momentum… with the family dynamics getting more complicated as… family divisions, conflicts, and betrayals are revealed. The last third of the book reads like a thriller but never loses its emotional depth. —Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. Lib., MD
Library Journal


★ Adam's writing is luxuriant, evoking the atmospheric island setting and the complicated, worried lives lived under a near-constant sense of impending violence…. Heartbreaking and lovely, this is an important work by a promising new voice.
Booklist


[T]he novel telegraphs its biggest plot twist. [As] a result Clyde's decision isn't harrowing; by the time its necessary consequences unfold, a reader might be less moved than Adam hopes.… [Still] Adam has… written an incisive and loving portrait of contemporary Trinidad.
Kirkus Reviews