Other People's Children

Generous, intelligent, beautiful - a book that will get under your skin, into your blood and bones. I loved it -- Katherine Rundell
What a quietly beautiful novel this is. There are many pages in this book that I read and wanted to carefully pull out and press into the hands of the writers I work with, to say: "Look at this scene, this sentence - this is how it's done" -- Ross Raisin
Like the best italian agrodolce, Ben Faccini's writing leaves the reader uncertain whether what they are enjoying is sweet or acerbic. He writes brilliantly about childhood and childishness and, in this instance, about the passions and fears of the very old... Compulsory reading not just for parents everywhere but for anyone convinced that the challenge of migration ends with the arrival in a place of safety -- Patrick Gale
This story about the impact of history on human lives is remarkably sensitively told -- Jung Chang
Luminous and compelling... Shines a devastating spotlight on the treatment of Italians in the UK during WWII, and on its intergenerational legacy. A story about the absorption of loss, the fragility of memory, and ultimately, the power of love -- Alba Arikha * author of Two Hours and Where to Find Me *
From its first page, Other People's Children seemed to be about a family I already knew and cared for, and I read it utterly absorbed. In this haunting novel about the unsettling reach of trauma and secrets, the past emerges feature by feature, as if an old painting were revealing itself under a new one until the picture is forever altered -- Anuradha Roy
Alive with vivid detail, Ben Faccini's third novel weaves personal and national histories into a deeply affecting meditation on the treasures and burdens passed across time, with the Italian grandmother, Alma, as its miraculous beating heart -- William Fiennes * author of The Snow Geese and The Music Room *
In this deeply moving novel, Faccini manages to tell two parallel tales, a romantic comedy and a tragedy * AnOther *