The Boy In The Field

 

The Boy in the Field is Margot Livesey's ninth book but this is the only one I've read. When their father fails to pick them up from school three siblings start the five mile walk home. They discover a badly injured boy lying in a farmer's field, a traumatic incident which has a large impact on them. Duncan, Matthew and Zoe are bright well-adjusted kids who live in a small English town near Oxford with their supportive parents. Duncan, the artistic youngest child, was adopted at birth. After the discovery of the injured boy he feels compelled to search for his birth mother. Matthew decides to find the perpetrator of the assault and embarks on door-to-door interviews with the boy's brother. Zoe becomes infatuated with an older grad student and initiates a sexual relationship with him shortly after discovering that her father is having an affair. The novel is told from the point of view of the three children in alternate chapters. This is not a whodunit, it is the story of how they try to make sense out of an incomprehensible act and the effect that act has on the trajectory of their lives. I enjoyed this book very much. The children and their parents, the victim, even the lead detective on the case and the family dog are all sympathetic characters. I look forward to reading more of Margot Livesey's work.