Arno Bohlmeijer

This book provides an interesting perspective on child abduction as it deals largely with the aftermath of a baby's abduction and subsequent return two months later.

Nomi and her three-year-old daughter pop into a store, leaving baby Art in the bicycle carrier. Anne has just lost her baby, Reg, to crib death and buried him in the backyard. On her way to purchase a tree to mark the site, she sees baby Art and takes him.

As the story unfolds, we see both families dealing with what has happened. show more Art's older sister has questions and observations that keep her parents guessing about the best way to proceed with minor and bigger decisions. Anne is paranoid about taking the baby out, even to visit her mother. Her partner, Evan, who dumped her while pregnant is back, wanting to be part of her life and a father, not knowing about the kidnapping or the death of his biological son.

And when Art is reunited with his family, we see the parents again wondering about how to proceed, and obsessed with what might have happened to Art while he was being raised by other people. We also see Anne's struggle to reintegrate into the community.

This is a book that goes beyond "and they lived happily ever after" (for the record, they mostly do) to explore the unexpected, often subtle ways, a trauma can have lingering effects. The author did a very good job of writing from the viewpoints of his protagonists, Anne and Nomi. show less

Thank you Running Wild Press and LibraryThing for this gifted Early Reviewers book.

After her baby dies, Anne abducts a child to replace him. Narrowly follows along as Anne spirals while trying to keep the child concealed and Nomi struggles while trying to find her missing son.

I had difficulties keeping engaged with this book at times due to the fast pace and constant switching between character focus. In general, I love getting multiple points of view, but in this case, I wish it had stuck show more with a single person for a bit longer at a time. All the back and forth felt like I was being thrown around too much. In some ways this feels fitting for the distress of the characters dealing with the abduction of a child, though I’m not sure if this was an intentional point of the writing style or not. It became grating after a while. Overall, I did like the concept of the story. show less

Told from multiple perspectives, Narrowly begins with the abduction of Nomi's baby, Art. He is taken from his pram where he has been left while sleeping while Nomi is in a shop. Single mother Anne is emotionally fragile and devastated following the crib death of her infant son, Reggie. She buries Reggie in the backyard, which seems logical to her psychologically impaired mind. What follows is a thorough investigation by the police of Nomi's family and the unravelling of Anne as she attempts show more to lead her normal life. There is compassion for both mothers as the story unfolds.

My thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for this advance copy. show less

The story is told in diary form through the eyes of the author's 9-year-old daughter, Rosemyn. It tells of the family's car accident which left all four members injured, Rosemyn's mother fatally. The family's belief in the afterlife and the strong support they receive from other family and friends sustains them. Rosemyn's anger at her father's driving, at the time of the accident, is shown including a confrontation between the two. An insight into one family's passage through grief.