Rousseau’s Lost Children
Reviews
Smart, formally playful, and psychologically astute, Rousseau's Lost Children is a novel of ideas with moral insight and real emotional power
A masterful work of imagination, intellect and empathy that further cements McCrea as a singular voice in literature. This is a formally inventive fusion of historical and contemporary fiction that succeeds in illuminating both the past and the present with profound vision and grace
A hugely inventive and rich novel from a major storytelling talent
Rosseau's Lost Children is such an original, absorbing, illuminating novel; an exploration of life's big themes - love, loyalty and truth - from a writer of tremendous skill and brilliance
A novel quite unlike anything else. McCrea is an astonishingly talented writer, the breadth of his ability matched only by the magnitude of his ambition. His formal risks pay off in spades. This is an astounding narrative achievement. I loved every page
Rousseau's Lost Children pulls off the admirable feat of being as fun to read as it is creatively daring and rich with ideas. The glare of Enlightenment philosophy and the moral murk of contemporary sexual politics collide in the strange prism of Gavin McCrea's imagination
Part novel, part biography, part philosophical workout, Rousseau's Lost Children interrogates some of the wackier as well as most cherished Enlightenment principles. Gavin grapples with age-old conundrums: conflicts between desire and morality, ideology and practice, and self and society. Read the book with a Plan de Paris at hand and see the City of Light with fresh eyes
Inventive . . . a novel pairing the teachings of Rousseau with an intimate, often devastating, story of a teacher and student . . . Rousseau's Lost Children, expansive and philosophical all at once, proves a shattering study of power perverted by a mentor, and the moral lessons left in the aftermath . . . packs a heavy emotional punch, producing a deeply affecting account of power and connection and its ability to entrap us, even in love