Cry Baby

Suspense and foreboding move alongside the chief players in this auspicious novelistic debut by a British writer. Lisa brings her baby to the hospital with a broken arm, explaining that she had left Katie on the bed for only a few seconds. The baby cries all the time; her husband is away; Lisa is only 18. She recounts sleepless nights, the duties of straightening the small, ugly flat, keeping the baby clean and pretty, herself too. Yet when Paul comes home, carrying a teddy bear, he never notices her but makes straight for Katie. Once she and Paul had been everything to each other; now Katie the usurper never ever cries when Paul is around. Taciturn and emotional by turns, Lisa accuses Paul of not loving her, finally driving him out of the house. Long after the pubs have closed he comes back to the shocking denouement. Franey deftly engages the reader's emotions as she spins this disturbing tale. (November 10)