The History of Magic

One night two people drive up to a big old country house. Taking care to make no noise, the young man gets out of the car and puts a box containing a new-born baby on the steps of the garage. The woman complains; he should have left it by the house, not the garage, but he ignores her whining and hastens to get away. The house is called Blessings, a house belonging to a rich family and now lived in by a solitary old woman, Lydia Blessing. The garage is home to her new handyman, a boy who has never been fortunate or even loved. It is he, Skip Cuddy, who discovers the baby and decides to care for it. The plot is simple but Quindlen uses the character of these two lonely people to concoct a subtle and beautiful story. Lydia is so old that half-remembered conversations from the past are more vivid to her than what friends and neighbours have to say. Her land and her house are constant reminders of her childhood and youth, her memories at once more painful and more sweet than the present day. Skip, whom she insists on calling Charles, is as deprived as she is blessed, as accustomed to his lowly position as she is to her haughty one, his short life a series of small hurts and disappointments. The coming of the baby changes everything but in unpredictable ways. The telling of the story is gentle and slow in a language that is both evocative and memorable. Quindlen knows about rejection and pain; she can describe the way people misinterpret one another's actions and thoughts, how motives can be simple and yet so easily misconstrued. This is a tender story related lovingly and yet not shirking tragedy and drama. (Kirkus UK)