Hush Little Children

The debut novel by acclaimed poet Hayan Charara, exploring A couple fears for their unborn child as irrational tension and violence ratchet up against their community. On the same day child suicides first start, a couple in the East Side finds out they’re pregnant. Then when a teen’s murder-suicide rocks the city, many see a pattern, that it’s the failings of East Side and the people who live there. The incidents are politicized, disinformation is spread, and hate groups are formed. For our protagonist and his pregnant wife, their status as East Sider’s—both by address and appearance—means having to look over their shoulder. As tensions mount, they must protect their unborn child at all costs.