Summer Reading: Orphan Train

Unlike the first two selections on my summer reading list, I could not put Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline down! It is a compelling story about a little known period of history and an unlikely friendship that really touched me. Kline seamlessly blends a story from the 1930s and a contemporary one with two alternating narrators: Molly is a seventeen year old orphan in a difficult foster placement who is given community service hours for stealing a book and Vivian Daly is a lonely 91-year-old woman living in a large house overflowing with painful memories. Molly is given the opportunity to complete her community service hours by helping Vivian clean and organize her attic. As the two of them interact, Molly learns Vivian's remarkable story about her life as an Irish immigrant and how, after losing her parents in a fire, she was placed on a train to the Midwest to be adopted by families in need of labor during the 1930s and their relationship begins to grow. They bond over their shared experiences as orphans (and the book Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery) and eventually help each other in surprising ways. I found both of these characters to be incredibly sympathetic. Molly is, initially, harder to like because she has built such a wall around herself to deal with the circumstances of her life but I understood her anger and appreciated her transformation even more. I found Vivian's story to be incredibly moving, even more so because it is a true depiction of what happened to over 200,000 orphans from 1854 to 1929. Vivian's bleak life after riding the orphan train brought tears to my eyes but this novel is ultimately very hopeful.  I read well into the night because I wanted to know what happened to these characters and, while I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed, I found it to be very satisfying. This is a memorable story that I highly recommend.

Note:  Have you read Orphan Train?  What did you think?