The Children’s Crusade

'A tour de force family drama' ELLE

'Bursting with poignancy… refreshing' NEW YORKER

'A provocative, dazzling novel' CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE

From New York Times bestselling author Ann Packer, The Children's Crusade explores the secrets, desires and remnant wounds of one Californian family over the course of five decades.

'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. Struck by a vision of his future family, Bill buys the property and proposes to Penny Greenway, a woman whose yearning attitude toward life appeals to him. In less than a decade they have four children. Yet Penny is a mercurial housewife, overwhelmed and undersatisfied, chafing at the conventions confining her.

Years later, the three oldest Blair children, adults now and still living near the family home, are disrupted by the return of the youngest, whose sudden presence sets off a struggle over the family’s future. One by one, they tell their stories.

'An artful portrait of a California family' VANITY FAIR

'Packer is an expert American realist at every level' VULTURE

'A beautiful novel that will stay with me' ABRAHAM VERGHESE