The Childhood of Jesus is a novel set in a calm, bureaucratic land where newcomers arrive with their past wiped clean and are given new names and a new language. Simón, a middle-aged man, takes charge of a small boy named David, who has lost his parents on the journey. Together they search for the boy's mother.
David is stubborn and gifted, and refuses to follow the rules of the world around him. The book is a quiet allegory about parenthood, education, love and meaning, and it does not explain its puzzles. Despite its title, it is not a retelling of the biblical story.
Quotes
As for your Spanish, don’t worry, persist. One day it will cease to feel like a language, it will become the way things are.
You are here to find your mother. I am here to help you.’
Benevolence, I must tell you, is what we keep encountering here. Everyone wishes us well, everyone is ready to be kind to us. We are positively borne along on a cloud of goodwill. But it all remains a bit abstract. Can goodwill by itself satisfy our needs? Is it...