Novels about children abandoned by their parents
April 29, 2016 10:01 AM Subscribe
What novels do you recommend about children abandoned by one or both parents? By abandonment, I mean everything from leaving a baby on the stoop or going out for cigarettes and never returning to the parent who becomes emotionally distant and/or physically distant following a separation or divorce. I'm interested in books in which the abandonment or the child's attempts to deal with it, perhaps when grown up, is a major theme.
The Goldfinch
posted by sparklemotion at 10:05 AM on April 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by sparklemotion at 10:05 AM on April 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell if YA is okay. The mother of the protagonist and her twin walked out on the family, leaving them to be raised by their father.
posted by carrioncomfort at 10:12 AM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by carrioncomfort at 10:12 AM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you're interested in fantasy novels, this is a major theme in The Goblin Emperor -- the main character is just now reaching adulthood, and dealing the the emotional and practical fallout of having lost both of his parents under complicated, traumatic circumstances.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 10:14 AM on April 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Narrative Priorities at 10:14 AM on April 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
If you don't mind fantasy, His Dark Materials has this.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 10:19 AM on April 29, 2016
posted by LoonyLovegood at 10:19 AM on April 29, 2016
Always loved Laurence Yep's "Child of the Owl."
posted by Melismata at 10:19 AM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Melismata at 10:19 AM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Pippi Longstocking and its sequels for a more lighthearted take. (Note; I haven't read these in a long time, but I'm pretty sure there's fitting-for-the-time-period racism in some or all of them.)
posted by ActionPopulated at 10:20 AM on April 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Pippi Longstocking and its sequels for a more lighthearted take. (Note; I haven't read these in a long time, but I'm pretty sure there's fitting-for-the-time-period racism in some or all of them.)
posted by ActionPopulated at 10:20 AM on April 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell if YA is okay. The mother of the protagonist and her twin walked out on the family, leaving them to be raised by their father.
YA is totally okay. Fangirl is what got me thinking about this as I thought Rowell did a great job with that aspect of the novel.
posted by Alluring Mouthbreather at 10:22 AM on April 29, 2016
YA is totally okay. Fangirl is what got me thinking about this as I thought Rowell did a great job with that aspect of the novel.
posted by Alluring Mouthbreather at 10:22 AM on April 29, 2016
Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum (in part).
posted by Sonny Jim at 10:47 AM on April 29, 2016
posted by Sonny Jim at 10:47 AM on April 29, 2016
The Great Gilly Hopkins is tops on this (note that the heroine, Gilly, is casually racist). A Wrinkle in Time also features apparent paternal abandonment.
posted by praemunire at 10:52 AM on April 29, 2016
posted by praemunire at 10:52 AM on April 29, 2016
Knock Knock is a picture book, but quite powerful.
posted by missrachael at 10:59 AM on April 29, 2016
posted by missrachael at 10:59 AM on April 29, 2016
The Lost Mother
Anywhere But Here and its sequel The Lost Father
Blessings, though the baby more brings out the issues of others since, well, baby.
Any Place I Hang My Hat
posted by zizzle at 11:03 AM on April 29, 2016
Anywhere But Here and its sequel The Lost Father
Blessings, though the baby more brings out the issues of others since, well, baby.
Any Place I Hang My Hat
posted by zizzle at 11:03 AM on April 29, 2016
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem is about a group of unwanted kids who grew up at a group home before eventually being taken on as deputies by a minor mobster who they see as a surrogate father.
posted by 256 at 11:04 AM on April 29, 2016
posted by 256 at 11:04 AM on April 29, 2016
I think The Chocolate Money by Ashley Prentice Norton would fit the bill here - mom is present but treats her child like an accessory, not a human being. Dad is completely absent and mom won't even tell the daughter who he is.
posted by meggan at 11:44 AM on April 29, 2016
posted by meggan at 11:44 AM on April 29, 2016
An Ocean in Iowa by Peter Hedges. It takes place during the year that Scotty Ocean's mother abandons the family.
posted by FencingGal at 11:49 AM on April 29, 2016
posted by FencingGal at 11:49 AM on April 29, 2016
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell is fantastic. It gets a bit dark, but I loved being immersed in this part of Florida.
posted by Gor-ella at 11:51 AM on April 29, 2016
posted by Gor-ella at 11:51 AM on April 29, 2016
The strip Gasoline Alley became hugely popular after Skeezix was left on Walt's doorstep.
posted by brujita at 12:22 PM on April 29, 2016
posted by brujita at 12:22 PM on April 29, 2016
I think a number of Joshily Jackson’s books deal with parental absence/ abandonement: The Opposite of Everyone, Between, Georgia, A Grown Up Kind of Pretty.
Lily White by Susan Isaacs has emotionally absent parents.
Crazy in Alabama by Mark Childress.
posted by Kriesa at 1:30 PM on April 29, 2016
Lily White by Susan Isaacs has emotionally absent parents.
Crazy in Alabama by Mark Childress.
posted by Kriesa at 1:30 PM on April 29, 2016
This is a major plot point in Fashionably Late by Olivia Goldsmith - although there's a twist to it.
posted by SisterHavana at 2:23 PM on April 29, 2016
posted by SisterHavana at 2:23 PM on April 29, 2016
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by (I think) Kim Edwards was very good. The main character is a nurse who delivers the baby of her doctor/boss. When it has Down syndrome, he tells her to get rid of it. She does so by keeping the baby herself.
posted by JoannaC at 2:26 PM on April 29, 2016
posted by JoannaC at 2:26 PM on April 29, 2016
I just started a relatively new book called All Things Cease to Appear, which so far I am LOVING and in the opening chapters, there are a couple of parental abandonments by death, if that's okay. I don't want to say too much because it is a mystery novel, ghost story, love story, and family drama all in one. But holy cow I didn't want to go to work today because I wanted to read more.
posted by janey47 at 3:09 PM on April 29, 2016
posted by janey47 at 3:09 PM on April 29, 2016
Bleak House, my favorite Dickens novel, is really interesting on this.
posted by Polycarp at 4:04 PM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Polycarp at 4:04 PM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Good Night, Mr. Tom, and the recent The War That Saved My Life.
posted by Riverine at 4:52 PM on April 29, 2016
posted by Riverine at 4:52 PM on April 29, 2016
Baby by Patricia MacLachlan is from the point of view of the family who found and kept the baby until her mother hopefully/possibly returns. Journey (same author) has an eleven year old tell the story of being left. Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White has the cousin of the abandoned child trying to figure out what happened to the mother (her aunt) and the child himself dealing in his own way.
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen is a teen dealing with being abandoned. Starglass by (mefi's own) Phoebe North has an emotionally abandoned and abused teen coming to terms with her dad.
I second the recommendations for Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman series -- Homecoming is a fairly straightforward journey as the children try to find a home, but all the ones afterwards are them trying to make some sense of their lives and especially their abandonment by (at different points) both parents.
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:13 PM on April 29, 2016
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen is a teen dealing with being abandoned. Starglass by (mefi's own) Phoebe North has an emotionally abandoned and abused teen coming to terms with her dad.
I second the recommendations for Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman series -- Homecoming is a fairly straightforward journey as the children try to find a home, but all the ones afterwards are them trying to make some sense of their lives and especially their abandonment by (at different points) both parents.
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:13 PM on April 29, 2016
The Woods by Harlan Coben
posted by SisterHavana at 7:34 AM on April 30, 2016
posted by SisterHavana at 7:34 AM on April 30, 2016
A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
Jane Eyre
Children kind of on their own (parents absent for a variery of reasons: orphaned, abandoned, sent to the country due to the war, death of mother and the father struggling financially plus being a typically-for-the-time-period uninvolved father, runaways, kids transported to alternate worlds/dimensions, kids at boarding school) seems to be a recurring theme in YA literature, especially late Victorian british works: E. Nesbit, much of Roald Dahl's work, The Secret Garden, Alice In Wonderland, the Narnia series, etc. For American versions and more contemporary: Maniac Magee, the Swallows and Amazons series, the Hunger Games trilogy, etc. I think this absent-parent plot device is common in books addressing the age range where kids are becoming independent/separating from their parents, so having parents absent in the story allows the author to give the young protagonists more agency, and to have adventures that showcase their decisions, the consequences thereof, and their growth and independence. That is, the stories are in many ways roadmaps to adulthood, which is a state where parents are absent, at least relative to their level of presence in earlier childhood. In that sense, books like the early Nancy Drew series, though not abandoned in the sense you describe seem to be a milder version of the same idea.
Then there's Lord of the Flies.
posted by eviemath at 9:14 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Jane Eyre
Children kind of on their own (parents absent for a variery of reasons: orphaned, abandoned, sent to the country due to the war, death of mother and the father struggling financially plus being a typically-for-the-time-period uninvolved father, runaways, kids transported to alternate worlds/dimensions, kids at boarding school) seems to be a recurring theme in YA literature, especially late Victorian british works: E. Nesbit, much of Roald Dahl's work, The Secret Garden, Alice In Wonderland, the Narnia series, etc. For American versions and more contemporary: Maniac Magee, the Swallows and Amazons series, the Hunger Games trilogy, etc. I think this absent-parent plot device is common in books addressing the age range where kids are becoming independent/separating from their parents, so having parents absent in the story allows the author to give the young protagonists more agency, and to have adventures that showcase their decisions, the consequences thereof, and their growth and independence. That is, the stories are in many ways roadmaps to adulthood, which is a state where parents are absent, at least relative to their level of presence in earlier childhood. In that sense, books like the early Nancy Drew series, though not abandoned in the sense you describe seem to be a milder version of the same idea.
Then there's Lord of the Flies.
posted by eviemath at 9:14 AM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. Not comfortable to read, but very well-written.
posted by Specklet at 3:41 PM on April 30, 2016
posted by Specklet at 3:41 PM on April 30, 2016
I really enjoyed Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden. I don't know if it counts: the father was absent or dead and the mother's illness led to the separation from the children
posted by serenity_now at 2:53 PM on May 1, 2016
posted by serenity_now at 2:53 PM on May 1, 2016
Tietam Brown
White bird in a blizzard
Human Croquet
Emotionally Weird
Empire of the Sun
Love in a cold climate
No name
these all deal with children grappling with identity after death or departure of parent. Some deal with forging identity and inner life in wake of notorious parent. Also as mentioned up thread Dickens specialised in virtuous child of wicked parent eg Our Mutual Friend.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 3:46 AM on May 2, 2016
White bird in a blizzard
Human Croquet
Emotionally Weird
Empire of the Sun
Love in a cold climate
No name
these all deal with children grappling with identity after death or departure of parent. Some deal with forging identity and inner life in wake of notorious parent. Also as mentioned up thread Dickens specialised in virtuous child of wicked parent eg Our Mutual Friend.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 3:46 AM on May 2, 2016
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