The Fifth Child
Doris Lessing author Lara Feigel editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers
Published:15th Nov '93
£9.99
Available for immediate dispatch.
A chilling, provocative novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author, updated for 2026 with a new introduction by Lara Feigel
This novel from Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing is an exploration of the debates and fears around parenthood. Provocative and uncanny, The Fifth Child is a chilling tale for our times.
This novel from Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing is an exploration of the debates and fears around parenthood. Provocative and uncanny, The Fifth Child is a chilling tale for our times.
Four children, a beautiful old house, the love of relatives and friends – Harriet and David Lovatt’s life is a glorious hymn to domestic bliss and old-fashioned family values. But when their fifth child is born, an implacable shadow is cast over this tender idyll. The infant Ben is violent and uncontrollable. Struggling to care for her new-born child, faced with a darkness and a strange defiance she has never known before, Harriet is deeply afraid of what, exactly, she has brought into the world …
'"The Fifth Child" has the intensity of a nightmare, a horror story poised somewhere between a naturalistic account of family life and an allegory that draws on science fiction. Read it and tremble.' Clare Tomalin, Independent '"The Fifth Child" is a book to send shivers down your spine, but one which it is impossible to put down until it is finished. Doris Lessing's power to captivate and convince is evident from the first, and the effect of the odd, alien child on the family is conveyed with quiet understatement which adds to the mounting sense of horror.' Sunday Times 'A disturbing vision, "The Fifth Child" offers a faithful if chilling reflection of the world we live in.' Sunday Telegraph
ISBN: 9780586089033
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 11mm
Weight: 120g
176 pages