Pagan's Father Book

Anyone who loves a child will find this beautiful English novel, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in 1996, excruciatingly painful and true. When Candida Mulliner, fatally ill, granted her old friend Leo Young testamentary guardianship of her 6-year-old daughter, Pagan, she meant specifically to exclude her adoptive parents, the mean-spirited middle-class couple whom she believed had never loved her, but had brought her into their home as decoration and were mortified when she exhibited a personality. Never having admitted who Pagan's biological father was, Candida preferred to elect Leo for the role. He stepped in gracefully when Pagan was born, offering consistency and love, and struggled to do and say the right things for her when Candida died, even as Pagan's unloving grandparents swept in and took legal possession of the child. The book is written in the second person, as an internal monologue that Leo conducts with the dead Candida, a reminiscence of their years of closeness, and a horrible confession of what happens when he lets Pagan out of his grasp and into that of her grandparents. Pagan's Father features lyrical and exacting prose, combined with a harrowing story of betrayal, persistence, and survival. --Regina Marler Read More