Maximilian Moeran is an American Senator who intends to run for President. He's also a murderer, a womaniser and an ex-American-Football star. Max is a popular man and he runs his political life without scruples - until he has a sexual affair with Esme, a young schoolgirl, and this is the only thing that troubles his conscience. One night, left alone in the dark on the fifty-yard line of a football stadium, he has a moment of clarity. Suspected by family and friends of having had a nervous breakdown, Maximilian changes - he becomes completely honest. However, most people preferred the old Max and shun the new one. When Esme returns, seeking redress for the innocence he took from her, he has to decide who he really is - the old Max or the new one. Childeyes is more than a satirical and surreal look at politics in America - the novel asks some big questions about the untimate meaning of life, set against the background of Washington DC - an insider world which has just as much charisma and sex-appeal as the world of Hollywood, although as yet untapped in literary terms. Untimately, however, the book is about concepts of good and bad - and guilt.
The Lolitaesque affair between Max and Esme is controversial and taboo-breaking, but is also treated sensitievly and without hysteria." Author: "Childeyes is John F McDonald's 3rd novel. His previous novels, Tribe and Talking to God, are currently in development for film. John's 4th novel, Absolution, will be published later in 2009 and he is working on a 5th novel, Foreverland. John has also scripted many graphic novel versions of the plays of William Shakespeare. He has had stage plays produced in London and Paris and his his work for television has won awards."