The Fifth Child

Lessing, Doris

ISBN 10: 0586089039 / ISBN 13: 9780586089033

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Limited, 1993

About this Item

Ships from the UK. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.

Seller Inventory # GRP15511430

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Fifth Child
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0586089039
• ISBN 13: 9780586089033
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 0.273 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

A classic tale from Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, of a family torn apart by the arrival of Ben, their feral fifth child.

‘Listening to the laughter, the sounds of children playing, Harriet and David would reach for each other’s hand, and smile, and breathe happiness.’

Four children, a beautiful old house, the love of relatives and friends – Harriet and David Lovatt’s life is a glorious hymn to domestic bliss and old-fashioned family values. But when their fifth child is born, a sickly and implacable shadow is cast over this tender idyll. Large and ugly, violent and uncontrollable, the infant Ben, ‘full of cold dislike’, tears at Harriet’s breast. Struggling to care for her new-born child, faced with a darkness and a strange defiance she has never known before, Harriet is deeply afraid of what, exactly, she has brought into the world …

About the Author

Doris Lessing was one of the most important writers of the second half of the 20th-century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook and The Good Terrorist. In 2001, Lessing was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in British literature. In 2008, The Times ranked her fifth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". She died in 2013.