I am a huge fan of Carmel Bird’s novels. I’ve spent a lot of time hunting down her out-of-print titles, so a new novel is very exciting for me.

Child of the Twilight deals with themes of family and religion, as does much of her writing. The novel is narrated by Sydney Peony Kent, who weaves her own story of being an IVF baby into the narrative of the Bambinello, a bejewelled statue of the infant Jesus, believed to have miraculous powers, which went missing from its church in Rome. Sydney’s mother had prayed to the Bambinello for a child, as had Father Roland Bruccoli’s mother in Melbourne. Father Bruccoli was present in the church the evening the Bambinello was stolen, and is later the priest at the Catholic school Corazon Mean attends, unknowingly pregnant.

In her unique style, Bird deftly brings these seemingly disparate narrative threads together into a novel of life, death, miracles and religion.