The Man Who Loved Children

"This crazy, gorgeous family novel is one of the great literary achievements of the twentieth century. I carry it in my head the way I carry childhood memories; the scenes are of such precise horror and comedy that I feel I didn't read the book so much as live it." —Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom

The Man Who Loved Children is a brutally honest examination of domestic life and family. Sam and Henny Pollit have too much—too much contempt for one another, too many children, too much strain under endless obligation. Flush with ego and a chilling domestic power, Sam torments his children, bending and manipulating their seemingly limitless love to his overbearing advantage, while Henny looks on desperately,  all too aware of the madness at its root. A favorite novel of Jonathan Franzen and Randall Jarrell, among many others, The Man Who Loved Children stands as Christina Stead's masterwork.