We’re so excited by the buzz surrounding Orphan Train and the fact that it has become a NY Times bestseller that we’re doing a second blog tour. Follow along to see what readers are talking about!
About Orphan Train
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (April 2, 2013)
Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?
As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.
Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.
Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.
About Christina Baker Kline
Christina Baker Kline is a novelist, nonfiction writer, and editor. In addition to Orphan Train, her novels include Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines, and Sweet Water.
Kline also commissioned and edited two widely praised collections of original essays on the first year of parenthood and raising young children, Child of Mine and Room to Grow. She coauthored a book on feminist mothers and daughters, The Conversation Begins, with her mother, Christina L. Baker, and she coedited About Face: Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror with Anne Burt.
Kline grew up in Maine, England, and Tennessee, and has spent a lot of time in Minnesota and North Dakota, where here husband grew up. She is a graduate of Yale, Cambridge, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Hoyns Fellow in Fiction Writing. She has taught creative writing and literature at Fordham and Yale, among other places, and is a recent recipient of a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation fellowship. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her family.
Find out more about Kline at her website, connect with her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.
Christina’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, June 25th: BoundbyWords
Thursday, June 27th: Bibliophiliac
Tuesday, July 2nd: Turn the Page
Wednesday, July 3rd: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
Monday, July 15th: Tina’s Book Reviews
Tuesday, July 16th: A Patchwork of Books
Tuesday, July 23rd: Time 2 Read
Thursday, July 25th: bookchickdi
Thursday, August 1st: Life in the Thumb
Friday, August 2nd: West Metro Mommy
Thursday, August 8th: Literary Feline
Tuesday, August 13th: A Bookish Way of Life
Monday, August 19th: nomadreader
Allison @ The Book Wheel says
That’s so exciting! This is such an incredible book and I’m happy to see it doing so well.
Jon Paul says
Christina Kline’s book looks like a fascinating read. It is hard to imagine the pain and sense of dislocation that so many of these orphaned children must have gone through, and I am amazed that the same process took place in other countries as far away Australia. The other disturbing thing is that this didn’t happen very long ago, but I am sure that books such as this will go a long way towards helping us understand what happened, even if it is written as fiction.