In her forties, Livvy Alvarsson hopes to be a bone marrow donor for her
much-loved younger brother, Stephen. Instead, she discovers she has no
idea who she is. This is the second great loss she has suffered, for
eleven years earlier, her four-year-old son Daniel disappeared. Armed
with a few clues from war-time England, she embarks on a search for her
birth family. The narrative takes the reader from small-town British
Columbia to London and the English countryside and back. It is a story
about loss and grief, about secrets and guilt, but it is also about
restoration and balance. As Livvy confides her story to her dying
brother, she reveals not only an identity enriched by experience, but
also the transcendent importance of family and love.
The Cuckoo's Child is a compelling and remarkable evocation of loss
and longing and one woman's search for her family history.