Golden Child

The golden child is Peter, one of the Deyalsingh twins. He's the more scholarly of the two, and his parents, Clyde and Joy, are saving money to send him to college in the United States. His brother Paul, nicknamed Tarzan, is the wild child who spends his time in the bush near their house in rural Trinidad. When the family home is robbed, Joy begs Clyde to move to Port of Spain, where they will be closer to the boys' school and likely safer. But Clyde doesn't want to pay rent in the city, holding onto their savings for Peter's education. Not long after the robbery, Paul goes missing. His parents frantically search for him, their fears stoked by the violence and kidnappings sweeping the island. The novel starts off slowly but gains momentum as the search for Paul continues, with the family dynamics getting more complicated as the tension around the missing boy grows and family divisions, conflicts, and betrayals are revealed. The last third of the book reads like a thriller but never loses its emotional depth.