The Fifth Child
by Doris Lessing
WARNING: Not for pregnant or lactating females
This is a short and terrifying read. Harriet and David Lovatt’s dream to have a very large family is
shattered
after their fifth child, Ben, is born. He is other-worldly and obliterates
all their
hopes for a harmonious life with normal human children.
Do
not read on an empty stomach, alone, in the dark, if you are a woman
in her
child-bearing years, heavy with child or are generally faint of heart.
Learn more about why the recipient of
the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for
Lifetime Achievement in Literature chose to
unfetter madness in the NY Times’ interview
with the author: "The Painful Nurturing of Doris Lessing's The Fifth
Child".
