The #1 New York Times BestsellerNow featuring a sneak peek at Christina’s forthcoming novel A Piece of the World, coming February 2017.Christina Baker Kline’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel—the captivating story of a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to long-buried questions…now with an … leads her to seek answers to long-buried questions…now with an extended scene that addresses the number one question readers ask, and an excerpt from Kline’s upcoming novel A Piece of the World.
“A lovely novel about the search for family that also happens to illuminate a fascinating and forgotten chapter of America’s history. Beautiful.”—Ann Packer
Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?
As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.
Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.
Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, and unexpected friendship.
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Immensely enjoyable read. It pulled me in from the very first page, and then I devoured it.
This book came highly recommended by many friends, so I’m glad I got the chance to read it. (I was even reading it while sitting it an inner tube on a lazy river the other day, and a woman floating by said, “I loved that book!”)
My favorite thing about historical fiction is learning about history through story. This was definitely a part of US …
Did you know that the Children’s Aid Society used to put homeless, orphaned children on trains to send them to families willing to adopt? Well it is true, not just a made up tale. While this story has historical truth, the characters are fiction. This book explores the life of one of these orphans sum 70+ years later. An elderly woman agrees to …
Thank goodness for books like this one that enlighten readers about events in American history that are never taught in school! This is the cross-generational story about a teenage foster child (Molly) who is given community service to help an elderly woman (Vivian) clean out her attic. Molly learns that Vivian was sent out West on one of the …
I purposely didn’t read this book until I had finished my Orphan Train series. It is gripping and wonderful and leaves you with a real impression of just how horrible life can be for those who need homes. But it also shows how much a little kindness can change someone’s perspective and life. Wonderful reading.
While at the gift shop of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, this book jumped out at me so I bought it on a whim. Reading it made me laugh, made me cry, made me get very involved with the characters. Yes it’s fiction, but told against the backdrop of the very real transport of inner-city orphans to rural families in the midwest. …
I had no idea this was part of our history! This book is a very real read and full of different perspectives on the lives of children who were trapped in the orphan world of that time.
Excellent story. We read this in our book club. It is non fiction and historical fiction. This story was a bit eye opening to our history. A lot of children were left parentless after the great flu in 1919 and how they were taken care of is so sad!
For more than eighty years and until 1929, in excess of two hundred thousand homeless children were put onto trains and sent out to the mid-west of America. The trains stopped at towns where adults were encouraged to ‘adopt’ and give a home and education to an orphan child. More often than not the children were used and abused and many were seen …
This historical novel taught me a lot about something I knew little of: the orphan trains that took children from the large cities on the east coast to be adopted by western farm families. Some of these families were wonderful new parents. Others treated the children as slaves. The story is told through the eyes of one of the orphans who is now in …
1/2 – Despite early worries about grammar and clumsy phrasing Orphan Train is turning out to be a pretty reasonable book. A solid 3.5, maybe 4 depending on the ending. Molly is irritating, but probably true-to-life for a perpetual foster child – can’t accept kindness from anyone without looking for ulterior motives behind the gesture, likes to …
Based on the trueAmerican story of how orphans were transported from crowded cities in the East to the still unsettled West in the 19th and early 20th century, this book is hard to put down from page 1 to the end. Through the story of one young woman who endures plenty of hardship and heartbreak as she travels West after her home burns, the …
This story pulls at the heartstrings, it affected my emotions in every way. The two main characters pull you in like you were living their lives, their time, it has great historical value, mentioning things like the first release of The Wizard of Oz and how people were affected by the film. Great book, would definitely recommend to others.
I put off reading this because I thought it would be a predictable tear jerker. That’s not what I found. I really liked the characters with full spectrum of nature; good, bad, warts, dimples and homely values along with children who have no advantage but courage. I came to understand and value frontier stoicism.
Fascinating look into the lives of so so many children who week placed in this situation. They were strewn over the country and fell victim to cruel and uncaring people. Very sad and intriguing. Page turner for sure. Poignant and loved the historical facts that I knew nothing that something like this ever existed.
I love your books. So many of my family members read your book. Keep going. Thank you.
What was I waiting for? I was the last to hop on this ‘train’ (bad joke, sorry.) I don’t know why I thought this book would be so depressing that I had to put it off and I am sorry I waited. It was immensely readable and although there is sadness, it is an uplifting book. I read it in one weekend.
Loved this book! It kept my attention from the first pages. I love the recent books that weave fiction based on true stories out of the past. Highly recommend.
Just get it.
Orphan Train was enjoyable because it told the story of two women, a teen struggling with the angst of growing up and an old woman and her similar story from decades before. The two connect toward the end of the elderly woman’s life and the reader realizes how similar and at the same time different their circumstances turned out. I learned about …