A Crying Shame [Paperback]

Renate Dorrestein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2004

For ten-year-old Christine, home is a hostile, troubling place. Her mother reserves her affection for her younger, live-in-lover, and for Waldo, Christine's teenage brother. Christine viciously takes out her angry feelings on her Barbies and on a weaker girl in her class. Then on a family holiday in Scotland, a tragic accident occurs for which Christine blames herself, and panic-stricken, she runs away with her four-year-old brother, and hides in the back of a stranger's car. Agnes Stam is an elderly Dutch spinster, making her annual summer pilgrimage to her family's holiday cottage on Mull. When she discover the little stowaways in her car, she fails to report the missing children and allows them to stay. And so a little girl with a big, guilty secret becomes a lonely old woman's salvation - and also her nemesis.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A chilling and disturbing novel in which family represents the heart of darkness.', The Times .'Stark and gently funny, this is a tragic and lovely novel.', Guardian .'Gripping and unexpected, dramatic yet understated ... well-crafted, moving and compelling tale.', Oxford Times .'Reading the Dutch novelist Renate Dorrestein is an infallible reminder of how rare it is to find a gripping story about the old and the very young ... an effectively touching translation of a tale of three disregarded nobodies.', Independent Magazine .'Her novels read like film scripts...psychological thrillers in which what's most to be feared is closest to home...painfully cutting, and surprisingly funny...a truly courageous writer.', Independent ."Something terrible has happened ... But there are also some very funny moments ... the pace and energy of which is compelling, owing to Hester Velmans's fine translation.", The Lady

About the Author

Renate Dorrestein Renate Dorrestein is one of Holland's best-loved novelists. Born in Amsterdam in 1954, she became a journalist before writing her first novel, Outsiders, which was published in 1983. Her books have regularly appeared at the top of the Dutch bestsellers lists ever since. She has been nominated for the Libris Prize and won an Annie Romein Prize in 1993 for her 'original and irresistible' body of work. In 1997 she was voted runner-up for the Publieksprijs for the most popular Dutch writer. A Heart of Stone was her first novel to be translated into English, Without Mercy is the second.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Black Swan (August 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552999903
• ISBN-13: 978-0552999908
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,909,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hester Velmans is the author of two children's novels and a translator specializing in modern fiction. Her translation of Renate Dorrestein's A HEART OF STONE won the Vondel Prize for Translation and was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her translation of Lulu Wang's THE LILY THEATER was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Her children's book ISABEL OF THE WHALES now has a sibling: the second in the Whales Series, JESSALOUP'S SONG (age 10 and up).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A very fine novel, December 17, 2010

By 

Hope Burwell (CEDAR RAPIDS, IA, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Crying Shame (Paperback)

When I asked a Dutch friend to recommend a good modern Dutch writer, she recommended Dorrestein. And, I am so glad that she did. This is one of the finest novels I have read in years. Though it begins a bit slowly, and seems at first to be another pot boiler about dysfunctional families, it turns into a pair of very carefully crafted character portraits; one a girl of ten, the other a woman of 70, both intriguing and endearing. It's beautifully written (and translated). One of those novels you want to curl up on the couch with and not stop reading until you've turned the last page.