"In my nightmares I am alone on a train, heading into the wilderness. Or in a maze of hay bales. Or walking the streets of a big city, gazing at lights in every window, seeing the families inside, none of them mine." After my book club chose Orphan Train for our next meet-up, I picked up my copy and started reading just a little of the first page to get a "feel" for what the book would be like. I didn't intend to finish it right now, or even read any more than the first page, but I somehow ende "They call this an orphan train, children, and you are lucky to be on it. You are leaving behind an evil place, full of ignorance, poverty, and vice, for the nobility of country life." Meg - A Bookish Affair “Time constricts and flattens, you know. It’s not evenly weighted. Certain moments linger in the mind and others disappear.” this story broke my heart. Orphan Train is an educational and emotional read!This book is set in the Depression era and focuses on the story of a train that delivered over 200,000 children (orphans) from the East Coast to the Midwest from the mid-1800's to the Depression.
Instead of finding these children loving homes, this process often resulted in children working on farms or in factories (for little or no wages) or being abused. "The system" didn't care! Parts of the book are shocking as you recognize how little these El tren de los huérfanos Orphan Train WreckThe book I just read was terrible. It’s so bad, I thought that I might be the victim a literary candid camera type gag, where I would get to the last page and read “HA HA HA… you just read the fake parody version of Orphan Train.” Everything about this book was bad. Each and every character was straight out of central casting. The plot was predictable, rushed and overcrowded with stuff. If you saw any of my updates, you will know that the writing was gratuitously descriptive an I am pleasantly surprised by Orphan Train. Some of the lines are very well written. The book is told from the perspective of two young girls, each in their own way orphans, one living in contemporary times and the other back during the years of the Depression.
The historical thread is based on the orphan trains that transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes in rural areas of the Midwest. The central theme is however how it feels t Orphan Train: A Novel [Audiobook,MP3 Audio,Unabridged]DetailsAll the Light We Cannot See: A Novel FREE Shipping. DetailsThe Nightingale: A Novel FREE Shipping. A long journey from home and the struggle to find it again form the heart of the intertwined stories that make up this moving novel. Foster teen Molly is performing community-service work for elderly widow Vivian, and as they go through Vivian’s cluttered attic, they discover that their lives have much in common. When Vivian was a girl, she was taken to a new life on an orphan train. These trains carried children to adoptive families for 75 years, from the mid-nineteenth century to the start of the Great Depression. Novelist Kline (Bird in Hand, 2009) brings Vivian’s hardscrabble existence in Depression-era Minnesota to stunning life.
Molly’s present-day story in Maine seems to pale in comparison, but as we listen to the two characters talk, we find grace and power in both of these seemingly disparate lives. Although the girls are vulnerable, left to the whims of strangers, they show courage and resourcefulness. Kline illuminates a largely hidden chapter of American history, while portraying the coming-of-age of two resilient young women. “A compelling story about loss, adaptability, and courage . . . With compassion and delicacy Kline presents a little-known chapter of American history and draws comparisons with the modern-day foster care system.” (Library Journal)“In ORPHAN TRAIN, Christina Baker Kline seamlessly knits together the past and present of two women, one young and one old. Kline reminds us that we never really lose anyone or anything or--perhaps most importantly--ourselves.” (Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle)“I loved this book: its absorbing back-and-forth story, its vivid history, its eminently loveable characters.
ORPHAN TRAIN wrecked my heart and made me glad to be literate.” (Monica Wood, author of When We Were the Kennedys)“One of the most powerful novels I’ve ever read...I am compelling all of you, even begging you, to make this novel your next read. You’ll be talking about it for years to come!” (Naples Daily News (FL))“A gem.” (Huffington Post)“Absorbing...a heartfelt page-turner about two women finding a sense of home...Kline lets us live the characters’ experiences vividly through their skin...The growth from instinct to conscious understanding to partnership between the two is the foundation for a moving tale.” (Publishers Weekly)“Kline draws a dramatic, emotional story from a neglected corner of American history.” (Kirkus Reviews)“I was so moved by this book. I loved Molly and Vivian, two brave, difficult, true-hearted women who disrupt one another’s lives in beautiful ways, and loved journeying with them, through heartbreak and stretches of history I’d never known existed, out of loneliness toward family and home.”
(Marisa de los Santos, New York Times-bestselling author of Belong to Me and Falling Together)“A lovely novel about the search for family that also happens to illuminate a fascinating and forgotten chapter of American history. (Ann Packer, New York Times-bestselling author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier and Swim Back to Me)“Christina Baker Kline writes exquisitely about two unlikely friends . . . each struggling to transcend a past of isolation and hardship. ORPHAN TRAIN will hold you in its grip as their fascinating tales unfold.” (Cathy Marie Buchanan, New York Times-bestselling author of The Painted Girls)“Christina Baker Kline’s latest wonder, ORPHAN TRAIN, makes for compulsive reading...Meticulously researched and yet full of the breath of life, Kline’s novel takes us on an historical journey where survival depends upon one’s own steely backbone, and the miracle of a large and generous heart.” (Helen Schulman, New York Times-bestselling author of This Beautiful Life)“A poignant and memorable story of two steadfast, courageous women...
A revelation of the universal yearing for belonging, for family, for acceptance and, ultimately, the journeys we must all make to find them.” (Kathleen Kent, New York Times-bestselling author of The Heretic's Daughter and The Traitor's Wife)“Reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout’s Amy and Isabel, this Orphan Train carries us along until the stories of these two women become one.” (Mary Morris, author of, most recently, Revenge)“This superbly composed novel tells two parallel stories of suffering and perseverance, capturing the heart and mind equally and remaining mesmerizing through the intensely heart-wrenching conclusion.” (Romantic Times, Top Pick)“The intertwined stories in this novel will surely please those looking for a compelling new read.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer)“One of the most intriguing, tender novels of 2013...This is a warm, satisfying, and inspirational story.” (The New Maine Times Book Review)MP3 Una edition (April 8, 2014) 5.2 x 0.5 x 6.8 inches Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
#216,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) 5 star68%4 star25%3 star5%2 star1%1 star1%See all verified purchase reviewsTop Customer ReviewsPOWERFUL TALE OF UPHEAVAL & RESILIENCE|On the coast of Maine lives a wealthy ninety-one year old woman named Vivian Daly. Yet in her attic are trunks that reveal the secrets of her turbulent past.It is the year 2011, and nearby in the same town of Spruce Harbor, lives a seventeen-year-old girl named Molly Ayer who has bounced from foster home to foster home, and is now in a situation involving petty theft that will require some kind of community service.Told in beautifully evocative prose, the story unfolds in alternate perspectives, revealing what has happened to each of them, and how the parallel lines of their lives now converge to spotlight the similarities between them.From Vivian's early childhood in Ireland, to New York City, comes her passage on the Orphan Trains in 1929. A journey that will take her to Minnesota, from one home to another, never really knowing what home feels like, as she is treated like a slave and seldom has enough of anything, much less affection or love.
What Molly sees when she meets the elderly woman is a wealthy person who could not begin to understand her or her issues. But as the two of them clean out the boxes in the attic, the stories they share with one another reveal so much more than either could have suspected.The characters, both the primary ones and the supporting ones, brought so much color and emotion to the stories that I could feel as though I were sitting in their midst, observing and listening to them. And as I neared the end of Orphan Train: A Novel, I really could not have imagined a more beautiful or satisfying conclusion, and with it came a feeling that these characters would live on in my memories.At one point, Molly is at Vivian's home, taking in her recent good fortune:"Sitting in the rocker in the kitchen, looking out at the water, Molly feels oddly at peace. For the first time since she can remember, her life is beginning to make sense. What up until this moment has felt like a random, disconnected series of unhappy events she now views as necessary steps in a journey toward...enlightenment is perhaps too strong a word, but there are others, less lofty, like self-acceptance and perspective...."It is impossible to read this story and not take away from it the knowledge that wonderfully unexpected moments can happen in a life