DaybreakDaybreak
Title rated 3.85 out of 5 stars, based on 8 ratings(8 ratings)
Book, 1994
Current format, Book, 1994, , Available .eBook
Also offered as eBook, Available. Available
Eighteen years after the fact, two Southern families discover that their sons were switched at birth, and one boy is now fatally ill
Eighteen years after the fact, two Southern families discover that their sons were switched at birth, and one boy is now fatally ill. 200,000 first printing. $200,000 ad/promo.
Few writers can move and captivate readers as Belva Plain can. In Daybreak, perhaps her best and boldest work yet, she creates a living, breathing portrait of two families joined by a devastating childhood illness, yet divided by the politics of hatred and by the sons they love.
In a doctor's office, a man and a woman sit stunned as the doctor speaks: Blood tests show without a shadow of a doubt that the son they love so dearly, and who is now dying, is not their child. Incredible as it seems, there must have been a mix-up in the hospital where he was born. Enduring the pain of Peter's death is a blow they must bear, but Margaret and Arthur Crawfield must also confront the realization that somewhere their biological child still lives. And although they know their search will tear apart another family, they feel compelled to look for the child who has grown up in another home.
At the same time that the Crawfield family's world is turning upside down, Laura Rice - Mrs. Homer "Bud" Rice - looking around her elegant home at her beloved piano and ancestral portraits, realizes that after nineteen years of marriage she and her husband are fundamentally strangers. Bud Rice is respectable and respected in their small southern town, a good father to their two sons - bright, healthy Tom and eleven-year-old Timmy, who despite his chronic illness is a gift of joy. But Bud is the reason, Laura believes, for Tom's involvement with a campus group of terrifying bigots.
Now the Crawfield and the Rice families will come together, putting emotions in upheaval and leaving lives forever changed. Somewhere in the days ahead a mother must tell her son that he was born to another woman and has another family. And no one foresees the events gathering force to explode with violence in the quiet town as a political candidate plays on prejudice and fear. Newly discovered truths rock a family already under siege in Daybreak's jolting, soul-shattering conclusion.
Timely, provocative, and as real as today's headlines, Daybreak pulses with truth, takes our breath away with its extraordinary grace and eloquence, and brings vividly to life men and women so real they will long remain in our minds and hearts.
The doctor's office is cool, white, sterile. But the doctor's words are searing: blood tests prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Margaret and Arthur Crawfield's beloved, dying son is not their child. Now they must face Peter's death and the shock of having a son they have never met. Grieving, yet compelled, they begin a search that will tear two families apart.
Laura and "Bud" Rice share an elegant home and two children, brilliant, handsome Tom, and cherished, chronically ill eleven-year-old Timmy. But after nineteen years of marriage, Laura's respectable husband is a stranger—and the reason for Tom's escalating involvement with a group of campus bigots. Suddenly the Crawfields enter their lives and shatter their fragile world. As the Rices' quiet Southern town explodes with hate and violence, the two familes must embrace—or be destroyed by—the shattering truth.
From the Paperback edition.
Eighteen years after the fact, two Southern families discover that their sons were switched at birth, and one boy is now fatally ill. 200,000 first printing. $200,000 ad/promo.
Few writers can move and captivate readers as Belva Plain can. In Daybreak, perhaps her best and boldest work yet, she creates a living, breathing portrait of two families joined by a devastating childhood illness, yet divided by the politics of hatred and by the sons they love.
In a doctor's office, a man and a woman sit stunned as the doctor speaks: Blood tests show without a shadow of a doubt that the son they love so dearly, and who is now dying, is not their child. Incredible as it seems, there must have been a mix-up in the hospital where he was born. Enduring the pain of Peter's death is a blow they must bear, but Margaret and Arthur Crawfield must also confront the realization that somewhere their biological child still lives. And although they know their search will tear apart another family, they feel compelled to look for the child who has grown up in another home.
At the same time that the Crawfield family's world is turning upside down, Laura Rice - Mrs. Homer "Bud" Rice - looking around her elegant home at her beloved piano and ancestral portraits, realizes that after nineteen years of marriage she and her husband are fundamentally strangers. Bud Rice is respectable and respected in their small southern town, a good father to their two sons - bright, healthy Tom and eleven-year-old Timmy, who despite his chronic illness is a gift of joy. But Bud is the reason, Laura believes, for Tom's involvement with a campus group of terrifying bigots.
Now the Crawfield and the Rice families will come together, putting emotions in upheaval and leaving lives forever changed. Somewhere in the days ahead a mother must tell her son that he was born to another woman and has another family. And no one foresees the events gathering force to explode with violence in the quiet town as a political candidate plays on prejudice and fear. Newly discovered truths rock a family already under siege in Daybreak's jolting, soul-shattering conclusion.
Timely, provocative, and as real as today's headlines, Daybreak pulses with truth, takes our breath away with its extraordinary grace and eloquence, and brings vividly to life men and women so real they will long remain in our minds and hearts.
The doctor's office is cool, white, sterile. But the doctor's words are searing: blood tests prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Margaret and Arthur Crawfield's beloved, dying son is not their child. Now they must face Peter's death and the shock of having a son they have never met. Grieving, yet compelled, they begin a search that will tear two families apart.
Laura and "Bud" Rice share an elegant home and two children, brilliant, handsome Tom, and cherished, chronically ill eleven-year-old Timmy. But after nineteen years of marriage, Laura's respectable husband is a stranger—and the reason for Tom's escalating involvement with a group of campus bigots. Suddenly the Crawfields enter their lives and shatter their fragile world. As the Rices' quiet Southern town explodes with hate and violence, the two familes must embrace—or be destroyed by—the shattering truth.
From the Paperback edition.
Title availability
About
Details
Publication
- New York : Delacorte Press, 1994.
Opinion
More from the community
Community lists featuring this title
There are no community lists featuring this title
Community contributions
There are no quotations from this title
There are no quotations from this title
From the community