The Changeling: A Novel

After Brian disappears, Apollo has a recurring dream of a man who knocks on their front door. The man pulls off his face and reveals that he is Brian, but then he spews out a cloud from his mouth. The dream ends with Brian picking up Apollo and moving toward the sound of running water. Apollo is traumatized by something Brian says in the dream: “You’re coming with me” (8).

Lillian reverts to her maiden name and Apollo, too, becomes Apollo Kagwa. In 1989, when Apollo is 12, he is home alone and about to take a shower when he hears someone knocking on the front door. Remembering his dream, Apollo cautiously opens the door, but he finds no one there. Instead, someone has left a cardboard box at the door; it is marked “Improbabilia.” Apollo takes it inside.

When Lillian returns homes and sees the box, she tells Apollo that it belonged to Brian. She is shocked to see it and assumes that Apollo went through her closet to find it. As Apollo is explaining what actually happened, he is interrupted by the shower, which he’d left running—the water is spilling out of the bathroom. Lillian leaves to make sure the water hasn’t leaked into their neighbor’s apartment.

Apollo examines the contents of the box, which includes Outside Over There, a children’s book by American author Maurice Sendak. Since Lillian isn’t a reader, Apollo cannot bond with her over his love of literature. To compensate, Lillian starts bringing home reading materials from her office. She is appalled when Apollo starts renting them out to their neighbors, but Apollo explains that he needs to do something with the magazines and books after he’s finished reading them. He convinces Lillian that he has established a viable business in their neighborhood. Lillian encourages him by designing a business card. Apollo names the business “Improbabilia.”

Apollo focuses more on his bookselling business than on his academics. He becomes the informal apprentice of several booksellers, but he is shunned by others. He establishes a personal mantra to overcome his anxiety: “I am the god, Apollo” (19).

In 1995, Apollo is set to study at Queens College when a mentor gifts him with a memoir entitled Confessions of a Literary Archaeologist by the American book collector Carlton Lake. Lake’s anecdote about finding French poet Charles Baudelaire’s annotations in one of his books inspires Apollo to skip college and devote his life to book collecting.

Apollo goes to an estate sale to look through the book collection of an elderly couple who dabbled in the occult. There, he discovers a postcard signed by the British occultist Aleister Crowley. When Apollo feels the impulse to share his excitement over this discovery, he decides to start a family.

Apollo goes to a library sale, where he is impressed by a librarian who deftly assists a noisy patron, as well as a mother and child looking to buy some picture books. Apollo asks the librarian, Emma Valentine, out to dinner. Though she declines, Apollo persists and keeps asking her out. She finally accepts five months later.

Over dinner, Emma reveals that her older sister Kim raised her after their parents died. Aside from Kim, Emma considered her local librarian, Ms. Rook, a secondary guardian. Ms. Rook used to play movies for Emma while waiting for Kim to pick Emma up. At some point, Emma watched a Brazilian film called Quilombo and fell in love with Brazilian cinema.

Apollo tells Emma he wants his future children to think of him as a good father. Though Apollo immediately regrets saying this, Emma explains that the reason she initially declined Apollo’s invitations is that she is moving to Brazil.

Apollo frequently writes to Emma in Brazil, falling more in love with her. A year later, Emma announces she is returning to the United States and hopes to see Apollo at the airport. Though Emma’s flight is delayed, Apollo waits for her, and she is moved to see him.

While eating a late dinner, Apollo notices a red string tied around Emma’s wrist. Emma says an old witch gave her the string. The witch urged Emma to make three wishes and promised that they would come true once the string naturally fell off her wrist. Taking a risk, Apollo cuts the string off with a knife and promises to make Emma’s wishes come true.

Apollo, now expecting a child with Emma, visits Mrs. Grabowski, a Ukrainian American widow in Queens, to look through her late ex-husband’s book collection. Apollo is antagonized by the widow’s son, whom Apollo mentally calls “Igor.” Nevertheless, Mrs. Grabowski is insistent on closing a deal. Apollo assesses that most of the books are too damaged to buy. Out of pity for the widow, he buys one rare book and one common book for $50.

Apollo meets with Emma and her childhood friend, Nichelle, at an expensive French restaurant, where the maître d’ gives him a sport coat to meet their dress code. The three talk about Emma’s pregnancy, Nichelle’s writing job, and Apollo and Emma’s plans to have a natural childbirth at home. Apollo is quietly shocked as he glances through the meal prices on the menu. Emma and Nichelle each order a main while Apollo sticks to the bread basket.

When Emma goes to the bathroom to relieve her nausea, Nichelle reveals that Apollo has already granted two of Emma’s three wishes: “A good husband” and “[a] healthy child” (48). She starts to discuss the third wish by revealing that Emma had once explored an abandoned Brazilian factory with a Dutch photographer. The photographer wanted to take photos of Emma, but she wanted to learn how to take photographs. When the photographer left his camera unattended, she took a nude photo of herself, and the photographer included it in his next show. Emma has always willed what she wanted into existence.

Nichelle urges Apollo to pay attention so that she can reveal Emma’s third wish without violating her trust. Suddenly, the waiter calls Apollo to help Emma in the bathroom.

Nichelle pays for dinner as Apollo tries to call Kim, who is Emma’s sister and midwife. Kim agrees to meet them at home, though she cautions Apollo that it may be false labor. Apollo takes Emma down to the subway station, and his phone loses signal, which cuts the call. Apollo is anxious because the only reason he agreed to a natural childbirth at home was because Kim would help them through it.

On the subway train, a group of young dancers perform for the commuters. Emma is annoyed as she struggles with her nausea. At the next stop, a mother comes on with her two children. They sit across Apollo and Emma. Apollo repeatedly whispers to Emma that he is excited to meet their child. On their way to the next stop, the train stalls.

Apollo tries to recall as much as he can from the Bradley Method classes he attended with Emma. Emma moans through her labor pains, which draws the dancers’ attention. Apollo sends one of them to find the conductor while the others assist Emma. The conductor arrives, reporting that they won’t make it out of the tunnel in time. The dancers try to give Apollo and Emma some privacy. The mother on the train helps Emma to relax. Apollo starts to deliver the baby.

Apollo delivers their child—a boy—just as Emma’s water breaks. Apollo asks Emma if they can name him Brian.

After a period of recuperation at the hospital, Apollo helps Emma and baby Brian to settle at home. He then goes through the house, cleaning up and imagining how he might refurbish one of the rooms for Brian. Kim and Lillian visit, and they help Emma to breastfeed Brian.

Patrice Green, Apollo’s bookseller friend, invites him to an estate sale, but Apollo declines. Later that night, Apollo closes a deal on the rare book he’d acquired from Mrs. Grabowski.

A few months later, Apollo brings Brian to an estate sale, where they meet up with Patrice. Patrice, an Iraq War veteran, became a bookseller after graduating in library studies. Patrice has already set aside some books to buy. He has spared the basement, however, for Apollo to examine himself. They agree to split the profits of their respective discoveries.

In the basement, Apollo sets Brian on a blanket while he searches for books. He keeps talking to the child, telling him about his namesake, as well as the appearance of the mysterious box; Apollo rationalizes that the reason his father had left the box but remained absent was that he wanted to send Apollo a sign that he loved him. As Apollo changes his son’s diapers, he tells him about Outside Over There. In the book, goblins take the baby sister of a little girl named Ida while she’s looking out the window.

Apollo takes pictures of his sleeping son, which he sends to Emma and posts on Facebook. Having found nothing of value in most of the book boxes, he slowly inspects the last one.

Apollo is overjoyed when he finds an original first edition of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The book includes an inscription by the author made out to another American literary titan, Truman Capote.

Apollo cannot believe his luck and, back at home, he speculates on the book’s retail value. He retrieves his father’s Improbabilia box and replaces Outside Over There with To Kill a Mockingbird. He also places Emma’s red string inside, as well as the common book he’d bought from Mrs. Grabowski the night Brian was born and the driving ticket he’d been given on the way home that day. He hopes to share the stories behind these objects with his son one day.