The fifth child
by Doris Lessing · first published 1988
2mentions
1recommended by
2HN commenters
2009–2026first – last mentioned
50% recommend50% neutral
A self-satisfied couple intent on raising a happy family is shocked by the birth of an abnormal and brutal fifth child.
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…into the “average” person’s greats list, possibly because her use of language is very much not grade 5. Try The Golden Notebook, The Summer Before the Dark, The Grass Is Singing, The Good Terrorist, The Fifth Child, or the series that starts with Shikasta. E.L. Doctorow is another such example. Try The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, Loon Lake. In the scifi genre (aside from the Shikasta series already…
on “To become a better writer, read as much as you can” ↗I just read the fifth child by Doris Lessing, a novel about a family destroyed by a child who is a 'throwback', a kind of neanderthal, or troll. On amazon, there is a comment from a woman who claims to have lived through that, which…
on “The monster inside my son” ↗