Lamb

Manipulative doesn't begin to describe David Lamb, the creepy, self-appointed saint of Bonnie Nadzam's bold debut novel, Lamb. Between the back-to-back events of his father's death and the dissolution of his marriage and job owing to an inter-office affair, David finds himself at a crossroads and forced to reckon with his future. But when fate puts Tommie, a luckless, vulnerable 11-year-old girl with a shattered home life in David's path, he takes it upon himself to redeem her existence by stealing her away to his cabin in the Rockies so that she can experience a wholesome, nurturing way of life. Lamb knows that what he's doing is wrong—not to mention illegal—but he has no trouble convincing himself of the moral soundness of his actions. And Tommie, being so young, malleable, and heartbreakingly in need of love and care, is putty in his hands. Because much of the dialogue between these two plays out at a level a child needs to understand and not feel threatened by, sections of the book tend to drag as every single "Okay?" and "Will you do that for me?" is assiduously recorded. But the simmering, poisonous sexual undertone never relents as they travel further from civilization and into the impossible utopia of Lamb's wishes. Lamb is dark and disturbing and not at all an easy read—and that's precisely what makes this portrait of a self-deluded mind worth investigating.