Child of the Twilight

It is strange and fascinating to me to think of people, Avila in particular, praying me into existence. Nineteen-year-old Sydney Peony Kent was a longed-for IVF baby. Her mother, Avila, not only used science to conceive, but also prayed to the Bambinello, a small bejeweled carving of the infant Jesus, housed in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome. Avila's distant relative Father Roland Bruccoli was conceived conventionally. His mother also prayed to the Bambinello before his birth, and that of his twin sister. One evening when the adult Roland is visits the church, the Bambinello is stolen. Roland hopes that Father Cosimo, archivist, poet and riddler, can help retrieve it. But, when matters of belief are involved, nothing is straightforward, as Sydney discovers, too, when she is caught up in the search. Deftly weaving together religion, science, pregnancies wanted and unwanted, love, loss and belief, Carmel Bird has created a luminous novel that both questions and celebrates the miraculous.