The Children's Crusade
Published on 29. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
448 pages
978-0-00-873507-4 (ISBN)
Description
'A tour de force family drama'
ELLE
'Bursting with poignancy'
NEW YORKER
'Tender, absorbing' CATHERINE NEWMAN
'First-rate storytelling' BBC
'A riveting novel about how family molds us - for good and ill - and the grace that comes with forgiveness'
PEOPLE MAGAZINE
Bill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. It is here that he will fall in love with Penny Greenway, build a home and raise a perfect family.
Decades later, the lives of the three oldest Blair children are upended by the return of their younger brother, James - the wayward son - whose sudden presence forces to light the siblings' past rivalries and grievances, and sets off a struggle over the family's future.
From New York Times bestselling author, Ann Packer, The Children's Crusade explores the secrets, desires and heartbreaks of one Californian family over the course of five decades.
'This is a novel with something to teach about forgiving the people we love'
NEWSDAY
'Superb ... I've rarely read a novel so astute about the jumble of love and respect, rivalry and envy, empathy and scorn that makes up family dynamics'
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
'A beautiful novel that will stay with me' ABRAHAM VERGHESE
ELLE
'Bursting with poignancy'
NEW YORKER
'Tender, absorbing' CATHERINE NEWMAN
'First-rate storytelling' BBC
'A riveting novel about how family molds us - for good and ill - and the grace that comes with forgiveness'
PEOPLE MAGAZINE
Bill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. It is here that he will fall in love with Penny Greenway, build a home and raise a perfect family.
Decades later, the lives of the three oldest Blair children are upended by the return of their younger brother, James - the wayward son - whose sudden presence forces to light the siblings' past rivalries and grievances, and sets off a struggle over the family's future.
From New York Times bestselling author, Ann Packer, The Children's Crusade explores the secrets, desires and heartbreaks of one Californian family over the course of five decades.
'This is a novel with something to teach about forgiving the people we love'
NEWSDAY
'Superb ... I've rarely read a novel so astute about the jumble of love and respect, rivalry and envy, empathy and scorn that makes up family dynamics'
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
'A beautiful novel that will stay with me' ABRAHAM VERGHESE
Reviews / Votes
'Packer's golden touch makes us care that much more deeply for this memorable tribe' Elle'Psychologically astute ... this is a novel with something to teach about forgiving the people we love' Newsday
'Packer's portrayal of one family's breakdown is tragic and utterly engrossing' O, The Oprah Magazine
'Absorbing ... celebrates family even as it catalogues its damages' People Magazine
'Packer is an expert American realist at every level, from the interior monologue to the bird's-eye view' Vulture
'A big heavily plotted family saga to dive into and savour: deftly written, at times, funny, and always psychologically astute' NPR
'A superb storyteller ... Packer's dissection of domestic life reminds me of her elders in the field Anne Tyler and Louise Erdrich' San Francisco Chronicle
'In shimmering prose and with exceptional wisdom, Ann Packer examines the life of a California family ... revealing the ways in which the past casts both shadow and light on the present ... a provocative, dazzling novel from a world-class fiction writer' Christina Baker Kline, author of The Exiles
'Beautiful ... shows us how much of our adult identity has been fully formed in childhood ... [Packer's] mastery of story make us identify with and deeply care for her characters' Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water
'Packer flawlessly executes the most daring, difficult and exhilarating feat in the novelist's repertoire: to re-create the history of an era and a place through the history of one family ... pulling it off with mastery, authority and all the passionate artistry that lovers of her work have come to expect' Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
'Tender, absorbing ... painfully captures the tumult of selves within a family' Catherine Newman, author of Sandwich
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
304 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-873507-4 (9780008735074)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Ann Packer is the author of two short story collections and three novels, including the international bestseller The Dive from Clausen's Pier, which received the Kate Chopin Literary Award, among many other prizes and honours. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and in the O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies, and her work has been translated into over a dozen languages. She lives between New York, the Bay Area and Maine. Her latest novel, Some Bright Nowhere, is published by 4th Estate.