The Children Act
“Duncan’s voice has a maturity and pragmatism that suits Fiona’s characterization. Even as Fiona copes with difficult cases involving children and returns home to an empty house, Duncan remains steady and never maudlin. One can fully imagine Fiona retaining her dignity in the presence of these personal and professional storms, and so Duncan succeeds in this high-quality audiobook.”
AudioFile
Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge who presides over cases in the family court. She is renowned for her fierce intelligence, exactitude, and sensitivity. But her professional success belies private sorrow and domestic strife. There is the lingering regret of her childlessness, and now her marriage of thirty years is in crisis.
At the same time, she is called on to try an urgent case: Adam, a beautiful seventeen-year-old boy, is refusing for religious reasons the medical treatment that could save his life, and his devout parents echo his wishes. Time is running out. Should the secular court overrule sincerely expressed faith? In the course of reaching a decision, Fiona visits Adam in the hospital—an encounter that stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. Her judgment has momentous consequences for them both.
Praise