Birthright [Hardcover]

Andrew Coburn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 1997

On March 1, 1932, the sleeping infant son of American flying hero, Charles Lindbergh, was snatched from his cradle. A blend of fact and fiction, this is a re-imagining of the famous kidnap case that continues to exert a grip on the world's imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Suppose you're running for high political office and one day your dying father tells you that you're not really his son, but the kidnapped child of Charles Lindbergh. That's the dilemma facing David Shellenbach in Andrew Coburn's new thriller, and it says a lot about Coburn's ability to make believers of his readers that we buy into the idea from the get-go. As Coburn tells it, the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped by not one but three men: Bruno Richard Hauptmann (who was convicted and executed for the crime) and two other German immigrants. But the Lindbergh baby wasn't killed; the body that was found was really the boy David's mother accidentally drowned in her bathtub. Unknown to his fellow kidnappers, the senior Shellenbach brought the baby home and convinced his mentally fragile wife that it was her son. Haunted all his life by the crime, the old man finally reveals his secret to David, who makes a touching visit to Anne Morrow Lindbergh before deciding what to do with his new knowledge. Other fine examples of Coburn's unusual talent for gripping storytelling available in paperback include No Way Home and Voices in the Dark.

From Library Journal

Ignoring recent revisionist studies of the Lindbergh kidnapping, Coburn's fictional re-creation of the "crime of the century" builds on the official interpretation. Bruno Hauptmann, who was executed for the crime, was involved in the kidnapping plot and shared the ransom money, but he did not kill the Lindbergh baby. In fact, no one did. The driver of the getaway car, a man named Shellenbach, buries the body of his own recently deceased son in the victim's clothes and takes Lindbergh's child home to his grief-stricken wife to replace "David." The plan backfires, and Shellenbach's wife suffers an emotional collapse, leaving him a single parent. Against the historical backdrop of the Eisenhower era, Vietnam, and Watergate, the young man goes to law school, defends leftists, marries money, and eventually runs for governor. Coburn is not so much interested in the crime itself as its effect on everyone involved. Despite a few jarring anachronisms (David's wealthy fiancee attends Amherst College, an all-male school at the time), Coburn's evocation of intense states of guilt, remorse, and despair is masterful. Recommended for most fiction collections.?Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch., Los Angeles
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (October 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068481529X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684815299
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,767,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Engrossing Spin on a Historical Question, July 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Birthright (Hardcover)

As one who has been interested in the kidnapping of Chas Lindbergh since a child, I found this book to be very interesting. The author takes historical facts and turns them into a magnificent work of fiction.

The downside to the book is that it ends without giving the full reaction to the ending. Although the book skips around from personas, toward the end, it skips too much to give the full perspective of anyone.

Due to some sexual content, I do not recommend this book to those under the age of thirteen.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating variation on the Lindbergh mythos, August 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Birthright (Hardcover)

In 1932, Helen Shellenbach's grip on reality is very loose, to say the least. When Helen accidentally kills her infant child, her desperate husband, Shell, quickly realizes that he needs a replacement to assuage his spouses grief and guilt before she suffers a nervous breakdown. Like any loyal husband, he goes out and kidnaps a baby, who happens to be the son of Charles and Ann Lindbergh. The Shellenbachs raise the lad as if he were their own child, calling him David. A few years later, Helen completes her spin into insanity and is committed. When David turns thirteen, Helen recommends that Shell return David to the Lindberghs, an act he refuses because the child is now a part of him.

More years pass and by the nineteen seventies David is running for governor of Massachusetts. His father is dying of cancer and decides the time to tell him the truth has arrived. He informs David who his biological parents truly are. His biological father is dead, but his birth mother and natural siblings still live. Once he recovers from the denial stage, David has several difficult decisions to make that will effect the lives of himself and those close to him.

BIRTHRIGHT is an interesting story line based on a twist to the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Shell is a fabulous character struggling to survive his one error in life by doing the best he can for David. The relationship between David and Shell (before and after the revelation) is also brilliantly drawn. Andrew Coburn brings a unique freshness to the historical fiction genre with this compelling story.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this book, July 19, 2000

By 

Jami Randall - See all my reviews

This review is from: Birthright (Hardcover)

This was a wonderful book to read. I could NOT put it down. The characters were so full of life. They could have been people you knew, members of your family and even a little of yourself could be recognized in them. I didn't feel that the book ever lagged in any spot and it grabbed you from the first sentance. I don't want to give anything about the book away because, if you choose to read it, you should have the full enjoyment and all the wonderment that comes with it. In my opinion, though, it was very well written with just the right amount of detail, not so much that you get bored and enough to picture every scene. The story was beautiful; full of human nature. Andrew Coburn makes his characters real and easily identifiable. I will definately be looking for other books written by this author.