The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman – 304 pages
Finished copy provided by Kensington Books for an honest review.
Book Blurb:
In the fall of 1918, thirteen-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphia’s overcrowded slums and the anti-immigrant sentiment that compelled her father to enlist in the U.S. Army. But as her city celebrates the end of war, an even more urgent threat arrives: the Spanish flu. Funeral crepe and quarantine signs appear on doors as victims drop dead in the streets and desperate survivors wear white masks to ward off illness. When food runs out in the cramped tenement she calls home, Pia must venture alone into the quarantined city in search of supplies, leaving her baby brothers behind. Bernice Groves has become lost in grief and bitterness since her baby died from the Spanish flu. Watching Pia leave her brothers alone, Bernice makes a shocking, life-altering decision. It becomes her sinister mission to tear families apart when they’re at their most vulnerable, planning to transform the city’s orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are “true Americans.” Waking in a makeshift hospital days after collapsing in the street, Pia is frantic to return home. Instead, she is taken to St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum – the first step in a long and arduous journey. As Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost in the months and years that follow, Pia must confront her own shame and fear, risking everything to see justice – and love – triumph at last.
My Review: 4 stars
The Orphan Collector was a timely and compelling story that pit good versus evil in a time of unrest. Amazing that a historical fiction book from 1918 could be considered timely but the Spanish Flu ripped across the world just like the Corona Virus is right now, in 2020.
I read this book in April and just realized that I never reviewed it. Those first rough months of lockdown melted my brain and there were a handful of books that were read and not reviewed. It’s amazing how much I remember, eight months later. For sure a sign of a good book!
Wiseman is a gifted storyteller who knows how to weave a story with smart pacing and memorable characters. In creating young orphan Pia, she showed us a vulnerable thirteen year old who, against all odds, is trying to save her infant twin brothers. On the flip side, Bernice is an embittered woman that is so full of grief, she turns evil. She was a model of complexity. I rooted and cheered for Pia (and Finn) and although the subject was hard, the characters brought this book to life.
Surprisingly, I found myself completely engaged by this story, while we were simultaneously living in a similar scenario. I’ve enjoyed all of Wiseman’s books and she’s become a go-to author for me.
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