A Sunday Times bestseller! Two women, bound by a child, and a secret that will change everything . . . London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate newborn at the Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the daughter she has never known. Dreading the worst, that she has died in care, she is astonished to discover someone pretending to be Bess has already claimed her. Her … claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl–and why.
Less than a mile from Bess’s poor lodgings, in a quiet Georgian townhouse, lives Alexandra, a reclusive young widow. When her close friend–an ambitious doctor at the orphanage–persuades her to hire a nursemaid to help care for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars comes this captivating story of mothers and daughters, class and power, and love against the greatest of odds.
“A gripping tale of motherhood, loss, and redemption. Hall’s distinctive characters and scrupulous historical detail drop us into a rich, Dickensian world full of desperation and lies, and shows us just how far a mother will go to hold onto her child.” –Serena Burdick, International bestselling author of The Girls with No Names
“The new Hilary Mantel!”–Cosmopolitan
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The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls has Bess Bright at the Foundling Hospital in late November of 1747. Bess had given birth to a little girl that day and her father is with her waiting her turn on lottery night. Bess is unmarried and unable to keep her daughter, Clara at this time. Six years later, Bess returns to reclaim Clara only to discover to that someone—using her name—reclaimed the child the day after Bess left her at London’s Foundling Hospital. She does not know how an individual knew the correct information to give to claim Clara. Bess is determined to discover who took her daughter and why they did it. Not far away, a widow of means lives a quiet life with her daughter. They only venture outside on Sunday for church. Her one friend is kindly local doctor. He suggests that she hire a nursemaid and introduces her to one. The widow is reluctant to add someone to her orderly home, but she agrees after seeing how the child and nursemaid get on together. The widow has a secret, though, that if discovered could change everything. The Lost Orphan is an engaging historical novel. I was drawn into the story and was reluctant to put it down to get chores done (the cats were determined to get their dinner though). I found it to be well-written with realistic characters. The author captured time and place. I could tell Stacey Halls did her research. I thought the plot was captivating. It is told from Bess’s and the widow’s point-of-views. We get to see the situation from both perspectives which I appreciated. There is some foul language (very little) in the story along with some violent situations (just so you are aware). The author provided vivid descriptions which really bring the story alive. The Lost Orphan is a raw and gritty story that draw you in from the very first page.
Hmm. I’m a bit concerned that this book is on Bookbub as The Accidental Orphan when the book I have in my hand is called The Lost Orphan. To add further confusion, I believe it is called The Foundling in the UK, BUT, notwithstanding, I’m happy to say that Stacey Halls’ second book is at least as good as her first (The Familiars – loved it!). She does a fantastic job of bringing 18th Century London to life and manages that trickiest of tricks of having two very different and complex narrators who both become equally captivating. I couldn’t wait to see how this story of family secrets and lies turned out. Read it!
I loved this book and just couldn’t put it down. Stacey Halls has such a beautiful way of expressing things that several times I simply had to stop and admire a sentence. Combined with her beautiful writing, The Foundling/ The Lost Orphan is also a brilliant story with some interesting twists and turns which had me furiously turning the pages until the very end.
In 1754, a young unmarried mother, Bess, is forced through poverty to leave her newborn daughter at a foundling hospital. Six years later, Bess manages to scrap together enough cash to reclaim her daughter only to find that someone posing has her has already done so. Her determination to find and reclaim her beloved daughter, brings Beth into conflict with the child’s rich adopted mother.
Told from alternating points of view, the author convincing portrays the gulf between the lives of the fortunate rich and desperate poor in Georgian London. Stacey Halls is clearly a skilled and talented writer but by the end of the book I felt the unlikely developments in the plot rather let the story down.
When my best friend (Liv) introduced me to this book, I thought “Well, I have nothing else better to do” So I picked it up from her house, sat on my bed, and read that book for the next 8 hours. It took me a while to finish it, I had to cook myself something, make tea, go to the bathroom, but I finished it with a big smile on my face. This book is truly something that’ll make you want to turn the page and gasp loudly.
I was honored to have read the Advanced Readers Copy of The Lost Orphan as my Contributor role with BookTrib.com. The following is my review and interview with Stacey Halls.
Blood and Water Mix in The Lost Orphan
Review by Valerie Taylor
The Lost Orphan (Mira) by Stacey Halls, which takes place in 1747, could just as easily been titled “A Tale of Two Mothers,” with a respectful nod to Charles Dickens’ novel set similarly in Georgian London three decades later. Clearly, in both stories, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
In Halls’ story, Bess is dirt poor and unwed when she gives birth to a baby girl. With no ability to care for her daughter at that time, she surrenders her to the Foundling, a hospital for unwanted babies.
Fully intending to return in the future when she’s earned enough money from her shrimp selling job, Bess leaves a token—half of a heart-shaped whalebone—to identify Clara. The child’s father has the other half.
When she returns to Foundling six years later, Clara is gone. Not dead, but claimed by someone posing as Bess the very day after she’d left her there.
Meanwhile, Alexandra is an eccentric widow of means, with a seven-year-old daughter named Charlotte. Each afternoon Alexandra takes tea and has idle chit-chats with her deceased parents. When she asks them why London needs three bridges across the river, when one is enough, her “mother smiles placidly.” A recluse beyond imagination, Alexandra tries to instill her myriad of deep-rooted fears of intruders on her young daughter, home-schooling her and allowing her to venture outside only for church services.
Encouraged by a family doctor who works at Foundling, Alexandra acquiesces and opens her home to a stranger—a young nanny named Eliza. Finally, though much to Alexandra’s despair, Charlotte has a playmate, someone to share her bedroom with, someone to dote on her.
But these two women are not what they seem. One is water, one is blood; and their secrets could well be their undoing, placing the innocent child in the middle of a nightmare.
As you’ll see in the interview with the author below, Halls intended to upend the “monster in the house” genre. And she overachieves because there are two monsters, not just one; and we, the reader, sway from cheering for one mother and then the other.
Though Halls transports us back to an era we’ve read about before, her vivid and graphic descriptions become almost holographic. We see the ratty blankets, food scraps, the seedy side of London. We smell her brother relieving himself in a pail. We grasp why Bess is thought of as a whore, though she is not.
Moreover, Halls’ characters are well rounded, coming alive and distinguishable by their words. Alexandra and the good doctor speak the King’s English, whereas Bess’ down-trodden family and friends embrace the jargon and slang associated with that era.
Even though the core of the story is the tug-of-war between Bess and Alexandra, ultimately we root for The Lost Orphan to win.
Interview with Stacey Halls, The Lost Orphan
What inspired you to write The Lost Orphan?
My story ideas come from places. This one came to me when I visited the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury, London. I wasn’t looking for a story idea; in fact, I’d just finished the first draft of The Familiars the week before. But I was so moved by the museum and the concept of the Foundling Hospital, which was established in the 1730s for babies at risk of abandonment.
I was particularly moved by the tokens left by mothers who hoped one day to claim their children. The tokens were like secret deposits that only the mothers knew about and would describe to prove their identity if they ever found themselves in a position to claim their child however many months or years down the line. All the objects were worthless scraps of fabric, coins, playing cards, except because they were the only things connecting the mothers with their children, they were priceless.
After my visit, I decided to write about a woman who had saved enough to buy her baby back only to discover her daughter had already been claimed.
Similar to your first novel, The Familiars (Mira, 2019), set during the 17th century Pendle witch trials in England, this story also features two women who are polar opposites. With two strong protagonists, who or what do you consider the antagonist in The Lost Orphan?
I was interested in writing about two women who don’t understand each other, and I wanted to go deep under the skin of both of them. So often all we have is our own perception, and I wanted to explore how they both saw the same situation. As such, they are each other’s antagonists. Certainly, Alexandra has more issues than Bess, but I was also interested in turning the “monster in the house” trope on its head, where the narrator doesn’t know there’s a monster in the house, and the reader knows more than her.
The Foundling Hospital existed for two hundred years. Why did you choose to set this novel in the mid-1700s soon after its founding?
Lottery night, where women were invited to draw colored balls from a bag while wealthy revelers watched, formed the admissions process in the Hospital’s early years. The color of the ball determined whether or not their child was admitted. A white ball meant their child got a place, red put them on the waiting list, and black meant they’d lost. This striking image just had to be in the first chapter. Also, I wanted to include the tokens that were used in the Georgian period.
Your description of London in this period is evocative, haunting; and your dialogue lively and distinctive. What resources did you access to bring the setting and characters to life?
It’s about immersing myself in the place I’m writing about. I turned to maps, diaries, biographies and non-fiction that focused on Georgian London. Two books that proved immensely helpful for building a picture of what the city was like at that time were Georgian London: Into The Streets by Lucy Inglis; and William Hogarth: A Life And World by Jenny Uglow. I also live in London, and the blueprint of the Georgian city is still very much there. The courts and alleyways of Bess’ London aren’t, but the townhouses of Alexandra’s Bloomsbury are.
Any chance you’re writing a sequel to The Lost Orphan? If not, will your next project propel us into the 19th century?
A sequel is not in the works, but I’m writing my third novel, which is set in Edwardian West Yorkshire. So I’ve skipped forward about 150 years. They had cars and phones by then, so the period feels very modern to me!
Having to leave your newborn at a Foundling until you could afford to keep the child seemed to be the norm in the 1700’s for poor families.
Going back to get your child after you saved half a year’s wages to pay for the child’s keep for six years and find out someone else had claimed to be you and taken your child was more unbearable than leaving your child the first time.
Bess was devastated when she found out someone had taken her daughter. When she questioned the governors of the Foundling, they had no answer, but her second try at finding something out had her introduced to a doctor who was going to try to help her.
Meeting with the doctor at a Sunday service allowed Bess to see a small child who she knew was her daughter. Seeing the child’s mother was a shock – Bess knew who she was, and knew that this woman’s daughter was surely her own daughter.
The following day, Doctor Mead proposed something extraordinary and unheard of to the child’s wealthy mother, Alexandra. Because she kept everything locked up, secretive, and never went outside the house except for Sunday services, Alexandra wasn’t sure of the doctor’s suggestion to hire a nursemaid.
We follow Bess and Alexandra as Bess serves in her household and is loved by Charlotte more than Charlotte loves Alexandra.
Women’s fiction fans and those who enjoy learning of the life styles of the wealthy and their privileges as well as the poor at that time should enjoy this book.
Life in this era was perfectly described by Ms. Halls along with her pull-you-in writing.
THE LOST ORPHAN has mystery, historical fiction, a main character with agoraphobic problems that stem from an incident in her childhood, secrets, and to what lengths a mother’s love takes her. 5/5
This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
1754 England was a different place and times were hard, a lot of people didn’t survive, and as you begin turning the pages of this book you will begin walking in two different woman’s shoes.
One gives birth and surrenders her child all in one day to a foundling home, for what she is hoping to return and get her in about six years.
The other has had a lot of tragedy in her life, including the death of her husband. She does not have to worry about where her next meal is coming from, having been left well off after the death of her parents.
Both endeavor to be parents to Charlotte/Clara, and we are along to see how this unfolds, and the heartache, and yes, the loving of others to help.
This book quickly became a page-turner for me, and I finished in one sitting!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher MIRA, and was not required to give a positive review.
A very quick book that I read in a matter of hours. I thought the first part was sad and depressing. The rest of the book was much better. I enjoyed the story. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy