The Children's Home: A Novel

Written by Charles Lambert

Narrated by Todd Haberkorn

A “disquieting” (The New York Times) and mesmerizing tale from an award-winning British author about a mysterious group of children who appear to a disfigured recluse and his country doctor—a tale that “[stirs] the imagination in the manner of Roald Dahl or C.S. Lewis” (Winnepeg Free Press).

In a sprawling estate lives Morgan Fletcher, the disfigured heir to a fortune of mysterious origins. Morgan spends his days in quiet study, avoiding his reflection in mirrors and the lake at the end of his garden. One day, two children, Moira and David, appear. Morgan takes them in, giving them free reign. Then more children begin to show up.

Dr. Crane, the town physician and Morgan’s lone tether to the outside world, is as taken with the children as Morgan, and begins to spend more time in Morgan’s library. But the children behave strangely. They show a prescient understanding of Morgan’s past, and their bizarre discoveries in the mansion attics grow increasingly disturbing. Every day the children seem to disappear into the hidden rooms of the estate, and perhaps, into the hidden corners of Morgan’s mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jan 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781511363006

Charles Lambert

Charles Lambert was born in Lichfield, the United Kingdom, in 1953. After going to eight different schools in the Midlands and Derbyshire, he won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge from 1972 to 1975. In 1976 he moved to Milan and, with brief interruptions in Ireland, Portugal and London, has lived and worked in Italy since then. Currently a university teacher, academic translator and freelance editor for international agencies, he now lives in Fondi, exactly halfway between Rome and Naples.

Reviews for The Children's Home

[clear_tranquil · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lambert wove an intriguing tale with an unsettling atmosphere filled with disconcerting children. Yet despite the sometimes dark tone of the book there is an underlying optimism - the belief and hope for the future - in finding acceptance and your place in the world. What I really enjoyed about the book was the characters' reaction to and interaction with one another; it was very compelling and drove the narrative of the story.

[hexenlibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

holy shit. i can't even.

[klarsenmd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I still don't know how I feel about this book. It was fun to read, but very odd and quirky. Lots of unusual plot twists and great imagery.

[linda.bass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I freely chose to review this book and I truly enjoyed it. Charles Lambert is unknown to me and I am glad for the chance. The Children's Home is a dark and eerie story where children appear on a disfigured recluse's door step out of the blue. He and his housekeeper can't turn them in as the children nestled into their hearts. Morgan Fletcher hides from the children as he fears his scarred face would scare them, but the boy called David is wise enough to make him see that love comes in all ways.......

[jjaylynny · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Hmmm. Okay, I'll give it a go: ooh, deliciously creepy to blah blah blah to what in the actual fuck to blah blah blah to aw that's sad.

Some piercing visual imagery but ultimately a let down with faint murmurings of ideas of forgiveness, loving others and oneself as roads to salvation. Plus an unwanted mental image of the Harry Potter mandrake.

[bookmarque · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As many of the reviews already state; this is an odd little book. It aims high, but ultimately leaves too much up to the reader to infer, deduce and outright decide. While I don’t mind some of that in a novel, leaving it all up to the reader is just plain laziness or incompetence. There is a great story in there, but the author seems to have given up on it.

[brittanylyn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Creepy! I breezed right through this as I couldn't wait to find out what the deal was with the kids. Anything with children has the ability to terrify me.

[carol420 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Cover:

In a sprawling estate, willfully secluded, lives Morgan Fletcher, the disfigured heir to a fortune of mysterious origins. Morgan spends his days in quiet study, avoiding his reflection in mirrors and the lake at the end of his garden. One day, two children, Moira and David, appear. Morgan takes them in, giving them free reign of the mansion he shares with his housekeeper Engel. Then more children begin to show up. Dr. Crane, the town physician and Morgan’s lone tether to the outside world, is as taken with the children as Morgan, and begins to spend more time in Morgan’s library. But the children behave strangely. They show a prescient understanding of Morgan’s past, and their bizarre discoveries in the mansion attics grow increasingly disturbing. Every day the children seem to disappear into the hidden rooms of the estate, and perhaps, into the hidden corners of Morgan’s mind.

My Thoughts:

What a strange little book. I'm still not sure exactly what it was really about and I've read some strange books in my lifetime. I will have to call the story "inciting" but so much of it is left open to the readers interpretation. It seems to have been the authors debut novel and it is short. perhaps a few more chapters would have given it more body. I will give it 3 stars because it diffidently had possibilities.

[mmignano11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

[The Children's Home] by [[Charles Lambert]] was well-written but after deliberating about it for a while, I realized that it isn't my type of book. I read it, but mainly because it was not very long. I lost interest after the first half of the book. It wasn't because the writing was bad. No, It was because it is not the type of book that I prefer. I don't think I have to have every detail mapped out for me. I do prefer to understand the motivation of the author. One of the reviewers for the book stated that it was quite an artful book and that leaving the reader to create their own ending for the characters was more of an artistic way of ending the book. I'm not sure I agree, I think that the reader is entitled to their opinion or vision about what is being said by the author but being vague just creates questions.

[flying_monkeys_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Echoes of a fairy tale mixed with Gothic horror; vague and somewhat creepy. I couldn't stop turning the pages, but then the ending came outta nowhere and I was like, "Uh, what?! Did I blink and accidentally fall into a different book?" It felt like, you know how you'll be in a really good dream, fuzzy yet clear, then all of a sudden you're zapped to somewhere else that couldn't be further from where you had just been. It's so disorienting you're on edge even before you look around to figure out what's going on in this new part of the dream and whether you should be scared or not. It just doesn't feel right and you're off balance for the rest of the dream. Yeah, the ending was like that. I think I understand what happened...maybe.3 stars

[welsh_eileen2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An otherworldly story about a disabled man living with his housekeeper who isvisited by strange children, who appear apparently from nowhere.With an unexpected ending to a very strange unsettling story.

[kris_anderson-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The Children’s Home by Charles Lambert is an unusual book. Morgan Fletcher lives alone in his big house until Engel shows up. Then one day a baby is left at the door. Slowly other children start to appear at the house. When one of the children become ill, Engel finds Dr. Crane to come and visit. At first Morgan hides from Dr. Crane. Morgan was severely injured by his mother. His face and one hand are badly disfigured. Then slowly Morgan gets to know Dr. Crane and they spend time together. Then people come looking for the children. When they search the house, the children (and all of their things) disappear. Until one day they find one child (maybe they are supposed to), Moira. Morgan and Dr. Crane along with the children go looking for the Moira. Why was the little girl taken and what is their fascination with children? The Children’s Home is just plain odd. I have tried to summarize it to the best of my ability. This book is really not that long, but it seem to go on forever. I really tried, but I was never able to get into this book. Odd things happen in the book, but nothing is ever explained (like what year is it, the country, last names). The writing style is convoluted and formal. I do not think I got the point of this book, but then I do not believe the writer knew what type of story he wanted to write. The world the writer created did not seem complete or whole. We are only given a little bit of information about it (like everything else). I give The Children’s Home 1 out of 5 stars (which means I really did not like it). It sounded like an interesting book, but I just found it odd and confusing (and very disgusting at the end). This book is not for someone with a light stomach. There are some nasty things that happen near the end of the book (with equally horrible descriptions). I received a complimentary copy of The Children’s Home from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[sj1335 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book was way out of my normal genres that I read. So I wasn't sure what to expect. This was an interesting read, it was a bit odd it didn't quite make a lot of sense in places, but then again it could just be me.I understood that Morgan was born a beautiful child and was kept away from everyone, then he was tragically disfigured and became a total reclusive. I understand why he was disfigured, that I got, but I have to admit the grandfather's role and what all was up with these mysterious children kept me baffled. I'm still wondering if I missed something crucial that must have tied them all together. I don't want to go into too much detail because it would be spoilers. I would like to thank Scribner and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley copy of this book to read and review.

[lauriebrown54 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Morgan, acid scarred son of wealth, lives alone in a mansion. He spends his days cataloging the maps and books collected by his wandering grandfather. Morgan has had a troubled life; a mother ill both physically and mentally and an isolated childhood have left him ill-equipped to deal with the outside world he has never seen. Then children start to arrive at the estate. The youngest are infants; the oldest is five year old David. Where they come from and how they get there is a mystery. They just are. They are preternaturally well behaved, quiet, and smarter than normal for their ages. David is their leader; he talks and acts like a small adult. They provide needed company for Morgan. They simply accept his scarred face as he accepts them. When one of the children becomes ill, the housekeeper calls in a medical man, Dr. Crane, who accepts both Morgan and the children just as they are. He completes their family odd little family. The children obviously have a purpose, but Morgan cannot figure out what it is. They learn from his books and instruction. They disappear into the many rooms of the house for hours, sometimes finding truly odd and rather macabre items. Outside the estate, a dystopian world lies. When it intrudes in the form of officials who say he cannot be harboring children, Morgan must face the outside world- and his family’s place in it- for the first time. What he finds is grim and bizarre. I’m not sure what to call this novel. It’s like a dystopian fairy tale, a fable written by Kafka. After a ways into the story, I would not have been surprised if Morgan had turned into a giant cockroach. The story is uneven; the first part is very good but as it heads into the ending it changes tone completely, and, frankly, I am left thinking “WTH was that about?!?!” If I could, I’d give the first part of the book a 4-star rating and the ending a 2-star rating.

[cuentosalgernon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This short novel (less than 200 pages) is as sort of weird fairytale, a sort of “Beauty and the Beast”, in which the Beast would be a disfigured man who lives secluded in an isolated mansion and the Beauty would be some children of different ages that start appearing in the house out of nowhere, although the story gets darker and more sinister as it goes along.Without going into the details of the plot to avoid spoilers, I will just say that I found the story fascinating and engrossing until the moment when they leave the house. I loved the vagueness and weirdness of that first part of the novel, but in my opinion the second part of the book was much less satisfactory, and the same goes for the ending.Regardless of these qualms, this novel was definitely worth reading and I would recommend it to any fan of weird and dark fairytales.