About this item
Perfect for fans of the NYT bestseller Sold on a Monday, this Southern historical novel based on the true story of a boy's mysterious disappearance examines despair, loyalty, and the nature of truth. In 1913, on a summer's day at Half Moon Lake, Louisiana, four-year-old Sonny Davenport walks into the woods and never returns. The boy's mysterious disappearance from the family's lake house makes front-page news in their home town of Opelousas. John Henry and Mary Davenport are wealthy and influential, and will do anything to find their son. For two years, the Davenports search across the South, offer increasingly large rewards and struggle not to give in to despair. Then, at the moment when all hope seems lost, the boy is found in the company of a tramp. But is he truly Sonny Davenport? The circumstances of his discovery raise more questions than answers. And when Grace Mill, an unwed farm worker, travels from Alabama to lay claim to the child, newspapers, townsfolk, even the Davenports' own friends, take sides. As the tramp's kidnapping trial begins, and two desperate mothers fight for ownership of the boy, the people of Opelousas discover that truth is more complicated than they'd ever dreamed.
About the Author
Kirsten Alexander is the author of two novels, (PRH, Australia & NZ, 2019; published as by Grand Central/Hachette, US & Canada 2020) and (PRH, 2020) . She is writing her third novel. She is also co-founder of short story site Storymart: Kirsten has worked as a nonfiction book editor, copywriter (inhouse four years for Aesop, also for Crumpler, M.L. Vintage, House Universe) , and occasional article writer (for the Age, the Daily Beast, Notebook, the Melbourne Weekly, Atticus Review and others) . She's worked as a reviewer for ABC Radio National's The Book Show, a magazine section editor, and content manager for several websites. She was co-founder and editor of three-volume digital journal Open Field. Kirsten was born in San Francisco, raised in Brisbane, and lives in Melbourne with her partner and two sons.