Book cover of Orphans: Real and Imaginary

Book description

In this memoir the author provides an account of orphanhood, and in a series of essays, examines the role and meaning of orphanhood in literature, history, and culture

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Why read it?

1 author picked Orphans as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In this engaging book, Eileen Simpson, herself orphaned at by age seven, offers both memoir and essays on the concept of orphanhood in history, culture, and society.

Of particular interest to me were the discussions of orphans in popular culture – such as Jane Eyre and Little Orphan Annie – and why orphanhood offers timeless intrigue into a universal human condition that at once represents both loss and possibility.

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These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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