Taking Baby For a Walk
Early Sunday morning in the quiet country town of Stinky Gully, five-year-old Bree-Anna takes her doll Baby for a walk.
Jake, passing through, hoping to spend the day with his daughter, sees a chubby girl in pink get into a green car.
Eloise, bar maid and part time cleaner, distracted with protecting her ailing father from her junkie brother, sees pink clothes in loner Randall’s washing basket and doesn’t think twice.
Bree-Anna’s precious Baby is locked in a suitcase on top of a wardrobe. She has no one to help her and Bree-Anna must remember all of the times she has been brave if she is to survive in Mr Randall’s house.
Available in print and ebook from Bookshop.org, Amazon and your favourite online bookstores.
$24.95
Book Details
| Weight | 350 g |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 216 × 140 mm |
| Extent | 208 pages |
| Format | Paperback |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Drama, Thriller |
| Release date | 10 August 2021 |
| ISBN | 9781922311368 |
| Imprint | Odyssey Books |
About The Author
Kathryn Gossow
Kathryn Gossow is a writer and sometimes gardener living in a two acre garden in a pocket of the Brisbane River. When she is writing, her garden is a mess. When she is gardening, she forgets to write. It seems she cannot have both. She writes for that elusive feeling when she gets into the zone and there is nothing else in the world but her and the words that tumble onto the page. Kathryn has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, won a commendation in the Australian Horror Writers’ Association Flash Fiction Competition and has a number of published stories out in the world.
Helen Carter (Running Chook Book Reviews) –
Taking Baby For A Walk by Kathryn Gossow is not the easiest of reads, not because it is badly written but because of the subject matter. Gossow’s writing is almost lyrical and she manages to convey the horror of the situation, without it being voyeuristic. I read it in one sitting and found it completely engrossing.
Annie, via Goodreads –
The plot itself had me at the edge of my seat in several occasions, from the kidnapping itself to the resolution of it, I feared for Bree-Anna, as she’s just a little kid, having to outwit someone older than her just to survive and remind herself that fear is where the brave comes from!
Malve von Hassell –
From the very first page I was drawn in and could not put the book down. Ordinary lives in their imperfections and enormous fragility are the background for the dark tale of a child’s abduction and her time spent at the mercy of her captor. The writing is so compelling precisely because it does not bother to spell out every detail. It is all there to see clearly for the reader for all that much of the story is told through the eyes of a child, confused, frightened, and perplexed, while also remembering incidents of abusive behavior in her home environment. Every character is flawed, and some of the scenes, in particular of home life, are profoundly disturbing. And yet, somehow the author brings them alive in their humanity and makes one feel pity for them, even at some level for the man who abducted the child. I was deeply immersed in the writing, skillfully weaving back and forth between the various characters and awakening every sense of taste and feel and smell. There are glimpses of tenderness and affection and also hope. They are rendered so lightly that one almost misses them—like the fast click of a camera shutter used by one character Eloise who is trying to work towards her goal of studying photography and art, or a scene of Jake who is trying to see beyond the shambles of his failed marriage to how he might build a future for himself. The entire story feels raw and real, painfully real. Highly recommended.
Julia Truitt –
This book is anxiety-inducing (in a good way — I couldn’t put it down because I was so desperate to know what happened, I blew through this in one night) and even the difficult and uncomfortable topics listed above are presented with enough care. Overall, this is a well-crafted, well-paced, well-plotted book. It will definitely not be for everyone, and even me myself I would probably not always be able to handle it depending on the day because of how realistic it feels. But that’s why this deserves five stars — it’s realistic!
Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews –
The story was absolutely realistic, and emotional. The author’s technique of raw, magnetic characters and great plotlines is a gift. This author is not just a writer but a great storyteller. Bree-Anna is only five, and then she is kidnapped, but there was something about this little girl, and she drew the reader in.