Hush, Little Baby: A Novel [Paperback]

Katharine Davies (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2006

From the winner of the 2005 Romantic Novel of the Year Award comes a heart-rending, evocative story of childhood discovery and disillusionment. It is a poignant and vivid exploration of a woman’s childhood experience and her visceral need to be a mother.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ten-year-old, bespectacled Eira Morgan is burdened with both an eye patch and a charismatic, exotic older half-sister, Phyllis. Along with their asthmatic younger brother, David, the sisters spend a transformative summer in the English countryside with Aunt Maggie and Uncle Huw while their parents study birds in Fiji. Davies's uneven second novel (after The Madness of Love) cuts back and forth between that summer and Eira's lonely present: she's 36, lives by herself, pines for her married boss at the museum where she works and fantasizes about getting married and having a baby. One day she discovers an abandoned baby in a box on the museum's steps and delivers the foundling to the nearest hospital—then finds herself bereft and flashing back to the summer when she discovered anorexic Phyllis was having an affair with Aunt Maggie and Uncle Huw's boarder, Edward Furnace. Phyllis, of course, becomes pregnant, and things end tragically after Eira interferes. The flashbacks are satisfying and lushly atmospheric, but the adult Eira plot lacks momentum, and she amounts to little more than her description of herself as "the sad woman with the green dress and the bright red lips." (Dec.)
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From Booklist

Thirty-six-year-old Eira is lonely, in love with her happily married boss, and desperate for a baby. When she finds an abandoned infant, she is flung into a depression. Subsequent events force her to come to terms with the childhood tragedy that caused the death of her older sister. In alternating chapters we learn about Eira's current life and the adolescent summer that changed her and her family. The modern-day chapters are told in the third person, and the chapters about Eira as an adolescent are in first person. The story of Eira's childhood is unique and believably told. However, the adult Eira has very little in common with the spirited adolescent character, and at 36 she seems a little young for the spinster role. Davies (The Madness of Love, 2005) tries to combine chick lit, mystery, and melodrama. She is intermittently successful. A conversation with Davies and book-club questions are appended. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (December 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812973291
• ISBN-13: 978-0812973297
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,141,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lyrically written but very dull..., February 10, 2010

By 

M. Nichols (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hush, Little Baby: A Novel (Paperback)

The lyrical, evocative writing was enough to sell "Hush" for a while. There is lush, vivid imagery throughout, especially in the descriptions of the museum. However, the plot is a mashup of three similar baby related story lines, and a poorly developed unrequited romance does nothing to help the rest of it along. I was quite bored midway and had to push myself to finish. Overall, despite the high quality of the prose, this book was a disappointment.