Two families,
generations apart, are forever changed by a heartbreaking injustice in
this poignant novel, inspired by a true story, for readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale.
Memphis,
1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a
magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But
when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy
night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched
from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home
Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be
returned to their parents—but they quickly realize that the truth is
much darker. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights
to keep her sisters and brother together—in a world of danger and
uncertainty.
Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth
and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career
as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the
horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a
health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable
questions—and compels her to take a journey through her family's
long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to
devastation or redemption.
Based on one of America’s most
notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a
Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to
wealthy families all over the country—Wingate’s riveting, wrenching,
and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we
take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.
Opening line:
"My story begins on a weltering August night, in a place I will never set eyes upon."
This
story was written so beautifully that I wanted to cry and cheer and
throw something. The characters, settings, the story lines...all
masterfully penned.
A favorite quote:
"A woman's past need
not predict her future. She can dance to new music if she chooses. Her
own music. To hear the tune, she must only stop talking. To herself, I
mean."
I want to believe that such an atrocity as baby brokering
didn't happen in America, but it happen then and it still happens now.
Just over fifteen years ago, a friend had her adopted baby taken from
her as it came to light that the mother, from the Marshall Islands,
realized her baby was taken for adoption and would not be back at age
18. This opened the sinister side of adoption: greed.
But this
story, of the Tennessee home and Ms. Tann, is disturbing as thousands of
children were whisked from homes and hospitals without consent, and
hundreds died. This was in an era where families lost everything and
feeding a family was a burden so they sent their children to orphanages
in the hopes that they would be taken care of and sent to families who
could provide for them. But that was a very small number compared to the
kidnappings.
I was heart sick for the parents who lost their children to this system and sick that they never got the chance to be reunited.
Another favorite quote:
"Life
is not unlike cinema. Each scene has its own music, and the music is
created for the scene, woven to it in ways we do not understand. No
matter how much we may love the melody of a bygone day or imagine the
song of a future one, we must dance within the music of today, or we
will always be out of step, stumbling around in something that doesn’t
suit the moment.”
There two possible scenes of rape but they are vague.
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