Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Survivor’s guilt can be hard to bear both for the survivor and the parents of those who did not
The Wrong Child
What you need to know before your trail
21 of 22 children in a rural village die in a disaster. By chance, the ‘wrong’ child, Dog Evans, lives. Crippled with survivor’s guilt, his parents abandon Dog to a feral, marginal life, shunned by those left behind, for whom his presence is a daily reminder of unbearable loss. In The Wrong Child, author Barry Gornell’s forensic gaze dissects the fractured lives of the bereaved, frozen the day their children died. Deborah Cutter, rejected by husband John, numbs her pain with alcohol and sex. Local postman, Nugget, clings to the hope the Evans house contains valuable secrets. Parish priest, Father Wittin, is an embarrassing irrelevance. As grief burns to rage, the villagers’ insatiable desire for catharsis and sacrifice becomes unstoppable.
Travel Guide
Scotland
Set somewhere in a village in Scotland, this is a dark, sad and tragic novel about loss and bearing the guilt of being the only survivor of a catastrophe. Of course this is set in a fictional unnamed place but evokes many real life tragedies both in Scotland and elsewhere where both children and adults would have gone through similar emotions in real life.
Not a book suitable for a booktrail but one which is set firmly in the bleak landscape of grief and guilt, survival and redemption
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Wrong Child
Destination: Scotland Author/Guide: Barry Gornell Departure Time: 2000s
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