The Children's Book

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK

PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright © 2009 by A. S. Byatt

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by

Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered

trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus,

the Random House Group, Ltd., London, in 2009.

The poem “Trench Names” originally appeared in The New Yorker.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Byatt, A. S. (Antonia Susan), [date]

The children’s book : a novel / by A. S. Byatt.—1st ed.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-307-27295-9

1. Women authors—Fiction. 2. Children and adults—Fiction.

3. Runaway children—Fiction. 4. Country homes—England—Fiction.

5. Family secrets—Fiction. 6. World War, 1914–1918—England—Fiction.

I. Title.

PR6052.Y2C48 2009

823’914—dc22

2009016334

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and

incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination

or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual

persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely

coincidental.

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