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Wish Child (B-Format)

By Catherine Chidgey
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Brief Description
I am the wish child, the future cast in water.Germany, 1939. Two children watch as their parents become immersed in the puzzling mechanisms of power. Sieglinde lives in middle-class Berlin, where her father censors books, cutting out forbidden words like ‘love’ and ‘mercy’. Erich tends beehives... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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A profound meditation on corrupt ideology and the resilience of the human spirit, this novel showcases Catherine Chidgey's ability to find the heart in history's darkest chapters.

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I am the wish child, the future cast in water.

Germany, 1939. Two children watch as their parents become immersed in the puzzling mechanisms of power. Sieglinde lives in middle-class Berlin, where her father censors books, cutting out forbidden words like ‘love’ and ‘mercy’. Erich tends beehives in the countryside near Leipzig, under the shadow of questions no one will answer.

Watching over them is the wish child, an enigmatic narrator whose voice emerges from deep within a shattered nation.

Siggi and Erich find temporary refuge in an abandoned theatre amid Berlin's rubble. Outside, white bedsheets hang from windows; all over the city people are talking of surrender. The days the children spend here will shape the rest of their lives.

A profound meditation on corrupt ideology and the resilience of the human spirit, this novel showcases Chidgey's ability to find the heart in history's darkest chapters.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781776923120

Publisher: Te Herenga Waka University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 March 2026

Country: New Zealand

Imprint: Te Herenga Waka University Press

Edition: 2nd New edition

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 250g

Collections

2025 Best Sellers 2026 Auckland Writers Festival Best Sellers at Book Hero Catherine Chidgey Fiction General Fiction In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Literary Fiction New Release Fiction New Zealand and Australia Published New Zealand Fiction New Zealand Published

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