Meg Landry expected it to be a day like any other -- her asthmatic eight-year-old son would step off the bus, home from school. But on this day, the boy on the bus doesn't seem to be Meg's son. Though he shares Charlie's copper hair, tea-brown eyes, and slight frame, there is something profoundly, if indefinably, different about him. In the wake of Meg's quiet alarm, her far-flung family returns home, and unease sets in. Neither Charlie's father nor Charlie's rebellious teenage sister can help Meg settle the question of the boy. They look to her for certainty -- after all, shouldn't a mother know her own child?

Deborah Schupack has crafted an extraordinary tale of a mother's love for her son and the mystery that may ultimately rip them apart. Tense and atmospheric, this debut offers a rare combination of intellectual sophistication and gripping suspense.