NZ writer Lloyd Jones' 2010 novel, Hand Me Down World, is the compelling story of a young African woman searching for the child stolen from her.

When the story opens, the woman, Ines, is working in a hotel in Tunisian. She has a child by one of the hotel guests and that child is then taken from her (under the pretext she consented to the child being adopted).

The woman migrates ‘illegally’ to Europe in search of her son. With help along the way, she journeys through Italy and Switzerland and eventually arrives in Berlin, where her son, Daniel, lives.

More help is provided in Berlin by Bertrand, a beggar-poet; a blind man called Ralf (who worked as an academic before he became blind and was in an orphanage during WWII) for whom Ines works as a carer; and another man who lives with Ines and Ralf to help out with Ralf.

Ines does get to spend time with her son, Daniel, but there is no happy ending, only the possibility of one in the future.