If everyone has plans for the beach this weekend, don't worry, buy the book we're suggesting and you won't feel the time at all!
The novel "The Orphan Collector" by author Ellen Marie Wiseman is a work that not only tells a powerful story about love, pain, and survival, but also invites us to reflect on the way societies treat the most vulnerable, in the darkest times.
At a time when the world is still struggling to understand the emotional and social consequences of a global pandemic, there are few literary works that manage to construct with such sensitivity and depth the consequences of a similar historical catastrophe.
A gripping novel about pain and hope
In the fall of 1918, 13-year-old Pia Lange, who has come to America from Germany with her family, including her twin brothers, wants to stay as far away as possible from the crowded streets of Philadelphia and the shantytowns and tenements.
Unfortunately for the girl, her father will go to war overseas, hoping to show his loyalty to the United States, while a new enemy has arrived in town: the Spanish flu.
Soon, there will be panic, chaos, and death everywhere. With no food at home, the little girl must take to the streets to find something for her little ones.
Ever since her only son died of the flu, Bernice Groves has been overcome by grief and sorrow. If doctors hadn't been so busy saving the hordes of immigrants, her son would have lived. The day she sees the neighbor's daughter leave the house, Bernice makes a decision that will change everyone's lives. According to her, her ultimate goal is to turn the children of immigrants into "real Americans." From this decision and as a result of the "purple death" many people will suffer...
A story that powerfully addresses:
- Hate hidden under moralism: Bernie represents a kind of fanaticism that unfortunately finds its place in times of crisis. She believes that immigrant children should be "rescued" from their families, while practicing silent and systematic violence.
- Immigrant identity and ethnic discrimination , in an era when being German in America meant being treated as an enemy.
- The strength of children and women in the face of evil, a theme that Wiseman always builds through characters who seem powerless, but who ultimately withstand everything.
The author's style and sensitivity
Living Publishing has brought out two more books by Ellen Marie Wiseman. “The Mysteries of Clara” is an accomplished novel, dedicated to a passionate love and a life cut in the middle, showing us how far a person can go to protect the most precious thing in life: love.
“The Missing Girls of Willowbrook” tells a chilling story of survival, based on a true story. Wiseman has a rare gift for constructing historical novels that are not just accounts of the past, but windows into eternal human emotions. She writes in a straightforward style, but filled with atmosphere and psychological depth. In the novel “The Orphan Collector” she interweaves two voices, that of Pia and Bernice, creating a constant tension and a clear portrait of good and evil that appear in the most unexpected forms.
A novel that invites us not to forget
“The Orphan Collector” is more than a historical novel; a reflection of society when faced with fear and death; a reminder that often the greatest victims are not just those who lose their lives, but those who lose their identity, home, and voice; a call for compassion, for resistance, to understand that history repeats itself not only in forms, but also in attitudes.
For today's reader, this book can serve as a cathartic experience full of thorns, but also as a window to see more clearly who we have been, what we have been through, and above all, how we should behave towards each other in times of crisis.
Passages from the book
1) Above all else, he wanted to lose consciousness, to fade away and disappear into nothingness, where pain and fear could not reach him. But now it was his turn to take care of the boys!
2) As the dead piled up in funeral homes and bodies were dumped on the corners of uninhabited neighborhoods, hospital wards expanded into corridors and morgues snaked out into the streets, Pia was struggling to survive on her own and keep the twins alive within the cramped, narrow rooms of their apartment.
