I'm doing some research at the moment and want to read well-written (I like thought-provoking beautiful prose, but that's not a necessity. I just want to be shown the story, not told it) novels that are written through the lens of a child protagonist, but I don't want to read YA or middle years fiction. Bonus points if it deals with child-hood trauma of some sort, but I'm open to it being absent as well
by 123Copper123
18 Comments
Slight caveat that only half of this novel is from the child (15yo) POV, the other half is from the same character’s POV at close to 70 years old. But I just finished one called *Out Stealing Horses* by Per Petterson, and I think it fits here nicely.
Some interesting reflections upon childhood (and also aging) by the character in his older age, and a well-rounded 15yo POV in the other half.
The Lamb by Lucy Rose. It’s a fantastically dark book told from the perspective of a daughter of an abusive, cannibalistic mother and how their relationship changes as she gets older and closer to her teen years.
All the colors of the dark is good!
The Wolf Who Cried Boy by Mark Mupotsa-Russell
The main character in The Girl with All the Gifts is a child. It’s not first person narrative through and there are chapters and parts which follow other characters.
One of the narrators in The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward is a child and there’s definitely trauma there. I think there are also flashback sections from the childhood of the other narrators.
Similarly in Sundial by the same author, one of the narrators is a child and trauma is a definite theme.
If you can find it, Rafe by Weldon Hill fits all your metrics.
I think Atonement by Ian McEwan fits?
Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos.
From the persepctive of a young boy who lives in spoilt opulence but lonliness, because his father is a cartel lord. The swings between him trying to copy the machismo around him and the flashes of childhood innocence are great.
Edwin Mulhouse by Stephen Millhauser is a fictional biography of a child prodigy written by a character who is a child prodigy. It sounds like a comic premise, and there is some humor, but it’s a serious book with a dark and shocking ending
Room by Emma Donoghue – it’s about a woman who has been held captive for years and had a child, but it’s from the five year old child’s perspective. The room is all he knows.
The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly and The Little Friend by Donna Tartt are two beautiful books for adults, about childhood, with child main characters. Very different stylistically, but I love both.
The be all to end all, Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”.
Room by Emma Donoghue, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Poisonwood Bible is alternates between perspectives of each of three daughters as well as their mother.
Poor Deer is partially from a child’s POV trying to navigate a trauma. It goes back and forth from child to the adult dealing with it.
Incidents Around The House
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon