Family dramas are one of the most touching stories that one can read, partly because they are easy to relate to. I recently read a beautiful novel about a boy, who had gone missing, returning to his mother after 6 years. The Boy in the Photo is a story about love, adjustments and getting to know someone you haven’t seen for a long time. It highlights the struggles that a parent goes through when a miracle returns their long-lost child to them. Inspired by local news, one of the reasons, Nicole Trope decided to pursue this storyline was to explore one of her fears of losing her children. I had the pleasure to read this book and chat with Nicole about the book. This blog post is all about the book. Interview coming in the following days!
Here is the synopsis of the book:
She becomes aware of the silence at the other end of the line. A prickling sensation crawls up her arms, her heart rate speeds up. ‘Found who?’ she asks, slowly, carefully, deliberately.
‘They found Daniel.’
Six years ago
Megan waits at the school gates for her six-year-old son, Daniel. As children come and go, the playground emptying, panic bubbles inside her. Daniel is nowhere to be found.
According to his teacher, Daniel’s father, Greg, has picked up his son. Except Greg and Megan are no longer together. After years of being controlled by her cruel husband, Megan has finally found the courage to divorce him. Hands trembling, she dials his number, but the line is dead.
Six years later
Megan is feeding baby daughter, Evie, when she gets the call she has dreamt about for years. Daniel has walked into a police station in a remote town just a few miles away. Her son is alive – and he’s coming home.
But their joyful family reunion does not go to plan. His room may have been frozen in time, with his Cookie Monster poster and stack of Lego under the bed, but Daniel is no longer the sweet little boy Megan remembers.
Cold and distant, Daniel is grieving the death of his father, blaming Megan for his loss and rejecting his family. And as Megan struggles to connect with the son she no longer recognises as her own, she begins to realise that Daniel has a secret. A secret that could destroy their family and put them in terrible danger.
A heartbreaking, emotional drama about a family in turmoil, with a jaw-dropping twist that will blow you away. Fans of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty and Lisa Wingate – this moving and poignant novel is for you.
The Short Take – From Goodreads
I could not put down The Boy in the Photo, and true to what I had heard about it from other reviewers, it did not disappoint me. Daniel was taken from Megan by her ex-husband when he was six years old. Since his abduction, Megan put all her efforts in finding him, with no success. Then, six years later, Daniel walks into a police station, two hour drive from where Megan lives, and identifies himself. What follows is a narrative about bringing a lost child home, getting him adjusted to his mother’s new life, while trying to get him out of the shadow of his now-dead father.
Nicole did an amazing job of portraying Megan’s struggles as well as family’s, before and after Daniel’s return. Megan’s anguish at loosing her son, guilt at moving on, and attempts to reconnect with the son she once knew, are evident and capture the reader in wanting to know what happens next. Though most of the novel is written in the time since Daniel’s return, there are chapters where the reader glimpses what each passing anniversary of Daniel’s abduction was like for both Daniel and Megan. These flashbacks are helpful in understanding what happened to Daniel and why he behaves the way he does.
In real life, we do not have the luxury of knowing exactly what happened. We are restricted to what someone tells us about their life.
The Long Take – Themes for Thought
The Support of the Internet Community
Megan immerses herself in blogs and the online community, reading stories of the people whose children have gone missing, how they have coped with the situation and more. She makes friends with some of these people online. In today’s day and age, we are more likely to turn to strangers for some of our deeper and darker feelings. What we might be embarrassed to tell our loved ones who we see every day, telling a stranger who we have never met brings relief. Though there were times when I wondered about Megan’s choices and the faith she put in people around her, it is easier to look from the outside and judge than to make the best decisions in the heat of the moment.
In their book, Opening up by writing it down: How expressive writing improves health and eases emotional pain, James Pennebaker and Joshua Symth share tons of research about the benefits of revealing our deep feelings, especially by writing. They have extensively studied the effects of writing about traumatic experiences and coming to terms with what happened. Megan too takes to writing by maintaining a blog about her son and sharing her journey.
Just like she is seeking help from others, those who have been in similar situations to her seek her out. The Internet offers the perfect place to find people who may be continents away but are the right ones to share and understand the pain with.
Reacquainting with Someone
Has that crush you had in school ever come knocking back at your door after many years? Maybe seeking closure or wanting to get to know you know? What do you know? How far do conversations about life and future plans bring us to understanding the years of which we were not a part of?
What do you do when you have missed some of the most formative years of your child?
In The Boy in the Photo, Megan is faced with this dilemma and this is where the Internet does not seem to offer the abundance of resources that it did earlier. She turns to her memory of Daniel when he was little as a way to establish a connection with him again.
What I realized was that it wasn’t just about getting to know who Daniel was now – his present likes and dislikes. This process of getting to know him was a way to understand what happened in the years that he was gone. What was his life like? What kind of situations did he face?
There is so much that happens in the course of a month that I can’t summarize. How does one go about catching up on years? Only with time.
I am thankful to NetGalley, the publisher and, especially, Nicole Trope, for making this book available to me ahead of publication, and giving me the opportunity to experience Megan’s story.
This is one of the best books I have read this year and I recommend it to all Jodi Picoult fans as well as anyone looking for a tearjerker to read in a day.
Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Nicole Trope!
** The Boy in the Photo is out now so get a copy and let me know what you think! Let’s have a discussion! **
Cover image and sunset image from VisualHunt.com. Photo of woman holding clock by Seth Macey on Unsplash
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