Rhiannon Navin's Only Child is the most powerful book you'll read this year.
We went to school that Tuesday like normal.
Not all of us came home . . .
Huddled in a cloakroom with his classmates and teacher, six-year-old Zach can hear shots ringing through the corridors of his school. A gunman has entered the building and, in a matter of minutes, will have taken nineteen lives.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the close knit community and its families are devastated. Everyone deals with the tragedy differently. Zach's father absents himself; his mother pursues a quest for justice -- while Zach retreats into his super-secret hideout and loses himself in a world of books and drawing.
Ultimately though, it is Zach who will show the adults in his life the way forward -- as, sometimes, only a child can.
PRAISE FOR ONLY CHILD
"Innocence trumps violence in Rhiannon Navin's Only Child" New York Times
"A powerful exercise in empathy and perspective." Kirkus Review
"[A] gut-wrenching debut...like Room and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, it contains wisdom for all ages." People magazine
"This emotional tale . . . sinks its hooks into you from the very first sentence and is a captivating exploration of a family's struggle to knit itself together after an act of violence." Marie Claire
"This captivating novel about family, prejudice, trauma, politics and forgiveness will appeal to fans of Room, The Lovely Bones and The Fault in Our Stars. . . ." The Independent
"'Only Child' triumphs. Zach, at only 6 years old, understands more about the human heart than the broken adults around him. His hope and optimism as he sets out to execute his plan will have every reader cheering him on, and believing in happy endings even in the face of such tragedy." Washington Post German by birth, Rhiannon Navin now lives in New York. She is married, with three children and two cats. This is her first novel. Zach's story starts on the worst day of his life...
... And takes him on a journey no-one could have expected
