Margaret Blanchard

Hatching: a Novel Margaret Blanchard First edition

A sick child's fate falls into the hands of a psychology intern. What he chooses to do secures her future. Manuel Flores, shattered by war, builds a shelter for Brigid, who has SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency ). This solution protects her, provides sanctuary for Manuel's restless spirit, and allows them both access to a natural setting. As Brigid grows, this nest starts feeling like a prison. She longs to get outside, beyond what she can see. Though it ultimately separates them, she pushes through cracks, then barriers, to open possibilities for Manuel. His mother, Elena, helps reunite them and, in turn, grows beyond her own boundaries of grief and aging. Although of different generations, each main character hatches. Each emerges into a wider sphere after struggling out of a tight shell. Exploring the theme of containment this novel reveals security's limits as three very different persons nurture each other through passages of growth, loss, commitment, parenting, discovery. From the sterile atmosphere of an urban hospital to mesas of the desert southwest, Brigid moves, by way of eastern woodlands, from cell to cosmos, from confinement to freedom, from cramped city to the vast expanse of starry night skies. Insightful, engaging, touching.