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The Night Child

A Novel

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Pub Date Jan 30 2018 | Archive Date Jan 15 2018


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Description

"The Night Child is a powerful, beautifully written, transformative novel that struck a rare chord with me.  When I recall Nora’s journey, I am affected viscerally, as if I were reliving her painful memories alongside her.  ‘Must Read’ is not a phrase I use often; I am using it now:  you must read this book!"

-Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

Nora Brown teaches high school English and lives a quiet life in Seattle with her husband and six-year-old daughter. But one November day, moments after dismissing her class, a girl’s face appears above the students’ desks—“a wild numinous face with startling blue eyes, a face floating on top of shapeless drapes of purples and blues where arms and legs should have been. Terror rushes through Nora’s body—the kind of raw terror you feel when there’s no way out, when every cell in your body, your entire body, is on fire—when you think you might die.”

Twenty-four hours later, while on Thanksgiving vacation, the face appears again. Shaken and unsteady, Nora meets with neurologists and eventually, a psychiatrist. As the story progresses, a terrible secret is discovered—a secret that pushes Nora toward an even deeper psychological breakdown.

This breathtaking debut novel examines the impact of traumatic childhood experiences and the fragile line between past and present. Exquisitely nuanced and profoundly intimate, The Night Child is a story of resilience, hope, and the capacity of the mind, body, and spirit to save itself despite all odds.

"The Night Child is a powerful, beautifully written, transformative novel that struck a rare chord with me. When I recall Nora’s journey, I am affected viscerally, as if I were reliving her...


A Note From the Publisher
Author Biography:

Anna Quinn owns the Writers’ Workshoppe and Imprint Bookstore in Port Townsend, Washington, where she has been named one of the city’s Patron of the Arts. She is a published poet and essayist with twenty-six years of experience teaching and leading writing workshops across the country.

Author Biography:

Anna Quinn owns the Writers’ Workshoppe and Imprint Bookstore in Port Townsend, Washington, where she has been named one of the city’s Patron of the Arts. She is a published poet...


Advance Praise

"The Night Child is a powerful, beautifully written, transformative novel that struck a rare chord with me.  When I recall Nora’s journey, I am affected viscerally, as if I were reliving her painful memories alongside her.  ‘Must Read’ is not a phrase I use often; I am using it now:  you must read this book!"

-Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

“A wondrous journey into the heart of survival, and our power to save our own lives. Anna Quinn plumbs the mysteries of dissociation with lyrical courage, examining the tender line between our past and present. This is a remarkable book.”

Rene Denfeld, bestselling author of The Enchanted and The Child Finder

“Anna Quinn writes with bright and assured authority, making this a remarkable debut novel you won’t soon forget. Her haunting story, expertly and lovingly crafted, leaves you breathless with both terror and hope.”

—#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs

"I loved this book so much…I entered Quinn's book and lost myself and exited her book changed. She is hanging with the big dogs with this work...like Jodi Picoult and Ann Patchett. For me this book is about destruction and creation. It revolves around the early destruction of a child and her re-creation (survival) as an adult, the destruction of an adult once her past explodes into her present tense and her re-creation—tenuous but real—into the next chapter of her life…Readers will love it."
—Lidia Yuknavitch, bestselling author of The Book of Joan

"What I had not expected was the surprise of being so completely in character with someone experiencing the kind of disassociation Quinn portrays. I don't think I have ever read such a strong rendition from the inside of such a dilemma, and more complexly, she made me care about Nora and identify with her. That's a very wonderful and difficult accomplishment."
—Dorothy Allison, New York Times bestselling author of Bastard Out of Carolina and Cavedweller

“Packed with riveting detail and radical emotional honesty, motored by a powerful (what I think of as a “life depends upon it”) authorial voice, this book does at least fifteen things novels are not supposed to be able to do.  I won’t name them, but I will tell you that it will stand you up against yourself in all the best ways possible. You will love this night child, and she will remind you to love the night child inside you. I can’t remember a novel in which I have been more deeply emotionally invested.”

—Pam Houston, #1 Los Angeles Times bestselling author of Contents May Have Shifted

“Quinn presents breakthrough emotional trauma, PTSD, and dissociation with frighteningly beautiful accuracy…Her people demonstrate the frustration and shame that often accompany psychological issues arising from severe abuse. They also demonstrate pathways out…Quinn books us on a vivid expedition inside Nora’s mind as we scramble with her for its healing…Frightening and thrilling, a freight train of a read!”

—Bill Ransom, author of Burn

“This book captivated me. My favorite stories are those that attempt to illustrate the most painful conflicts—those between parts of ourselves. Anna Quinn has written such a book and done so with tremendous empathy, propulsive storytelling, and great reverence for the complexity of healing, the ways that it breaks us apart so that we can be remade stronger.”

—Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart

''A flat-out page-turner that will have readers riveted as Quinn seamlessly, breathlessly explores the result of an identity irrevocably fractured in childhood and one woman’s struggle to ease the girl she once was, protect her own young daughter, and reclaim sanity."

—Adrianne Harun, author of A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain


''Stay with this book, this author. She will tell you the galvanizing story of how the world ends and how it begins again: child by child.''

—Rikki Ducornet, award-winning author of Brightfellow

The Night Child is beautiful, empowering–it shows us that on the other side of harrowing there is healing. Anna Quinn writes for those who have been silenced and gives them a voice in Nora.”

—Erica Bauermeister, author of The Lost Art of Mixing, Joy For Beginners, and The School of Essential Ingredients

“Quinn’s debut novel is stunning in its profound emotional authenticity and the luminosity of the prose. Quinn doesn’t sugarcoat this story of terribly harmful familial relationships experienced by Nora, the sympathetic protagonist. Unblinkingly, Quinn leads the reader into the night-darkness of Nora’s riveting and harrowing narrative. At the same time, Nora’s quest for truth is, ultimately, transformative: for the protagonist and, as with only the very best fiction, for the reader as well.” 

—Sue William Silverman, award-winning author of Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You

“Anna Quinn has created a story that reads like a thriller, one with the beating heart of a vulnerable child, and with the urgency of a woman unlocking her own psychic drama. The Night Child asks a vivid question about who gets a voice, and offers up the power that comes from reconciling outcast parts of ourselves.”

—Sonya Lea, author of Wondering Who You Are

“A wrenching, gorgeous, psychologically astute novel about a young mother and English teacher, Nora, whose unremembered childhood trauma returns to haunt her and threatens to wreck her ever-so-normal life. A story of family life—raw and not-so sweet; an adored 6-year-old daughter; a gay brother; the kindly shrink who stands by Nora; and the one man she can really talk to. A novel of trauma and healing that could not be more contemporary. So skillfully rendered: I could not stop reading.”

Priscilla Long, author of Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

“An incredible book…Beautifully, artfully, and poetically carries each of us into the profound layered mysteries of our own minds and hearts.”
Susan Wooldridge, author of Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words

The Night Child is an exhilarating debut: Quinn immediately pulls the reader in and doesn’t let go until the final scene. She commands each page and expertly dives into the inner working of a broken mind. This fast-paced, riveting novel of coping with the past while trying to salvage life in the present is hard to put down.”

-Melissa Norstedt, Booklist


The Night Child is a powerful, heart-wrenching psychological tale…Characters are extremely well developed, especially Nora, whose difficulties connecting with people, be they her unfaithful husband or her energetic daughter, feel realistic…Though it is emotionally challenging to read, The Night Child’s gentle dealings with heavy subjects highlight the fragility of the human mind and the intense journeys required to heal deep wounds.”

-Foreword Reviews

"The Night Child is a powerful, beautifully written, transformative novel that struck a rare chord with me. When I recall Nora’s journey, I am affected viscerally, as if I were reliving her painful...


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·        National and regional coverage, reviews, and interviews

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·        National and regional coverage, reviews, and interviews

·        Author talks and signings





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