The Boy in the Field By Margot Livesey

 

The Boy in the Field

By Margot Livesey

While walking home from school one day, Matthew, Zoe, and Duncan Lang discover the body of a boy laying in a field. He has been hurt and they call for help. Because of them his life is saved.

Afterward, Matthew becomes obsessed with finding the person who did this to the boy (named Karel Lustig). He searches with Karel's brother. Zoe falls in love with an American college student while walking the streets of Oxford. Duncan, adopted into the Lang family, decides he wants to find his birth mother. And through it all they discover their father is having an affair and the woman is pregnant.

Each in turn finds Karel and discusses his feelings about his ordeal and how they found him. He thanks them for saving him, yet wonders if maybe they shouldn't have. Throughout the autumn after saving Karel these three siblings struggle with the concept of evil in its various forms. They go through their own journeys of self-discovery. Their idyllic lives become unsatisfying, each knowing that something is missing and something is waiting for them outside of their comfort. Each is searching for a sense of control when confronted with something outside of their control.

This was an example of a book that sounded like a great read that ended up being just a good story. I liked the characters, but I expected a more intense plot and emotional resonance than I got. Like Summerlings, The Boy in the Field felt like it was written for a younger audience. It was just a 3-star read for me. It was good, but not great.