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The Bereaved

A Novel

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

Based on her research into her grandfather's past as an adopted child, Julia Park Tracey has created a mesmerizing work of historical fiction illuminating the darkest side of the Orphan Train.

In 1859, women have few rights, even to their own children. When her husband dies and her children become wards of a predator, Martha – bereaved and scared – flees their beloved country home taking the children with her to the squalor of New York City. But as a naïve woman alone, preyed on by male employers, she soon finds herself nearly destitute. The Home for the Friendless offers free food, clothing, and schooling to New York's street kids and Martha secures a place temporarily for her children there. When she returns for them, she discovers that the Society has indentured her two eldest out to work via the Orphan Train, and has placed her two youngest for adoption. The Society refusing to help and with the Civil War erupting around her, Martha sets out to reclaim each of them.

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    • Kirkus

      Starred review from July 1, 2023
      Martha Lozier is a struggling but determined mother in this moving 19th-century tale of loss and survival based on a true story. Upon the death of her husband, Martha sees no choice but to flee with her children from upstate Newburgh, New York, to New York City. She's specifically running away from her father-in-law, a lecherous lawyer who tried to rape her and who's also been named the guardian of her children. To say that life is hard in the city is an understatement; Martha seeks to support young Sarah, Ira, George, and baby Homer, and she's a talented seamstress, but work is hard to come by. They live in a grim apartment, and eventually the boys are rummaging through garbage to survive. Ira and George, while out foraging, stumble upon a place called the Home for the Friendless, whose administrators take them in and offer them fresh clothes, good meals, and schooling. It seems too good to be true. Eventually, Martha surrenders the children to keep them from starving; she's led to believe, with artful half-truths, that she can reclaim them when her fortunes improve. Soon, Sarah and Ira are sent away, she to Illinois and he to a place near Buffalo. Then George and little Homer are sent together to Ohio, where Homer is adopted, but George, who may have autism, is sent back to join Sarah. Will the family ever be reunited? Tracey does a masterful job in this novel, developing Martha as a relatable narrator; readers will find that their spirits rise and fall with hers. For the most part, her life in the city is almost too wrenching to witness. The most painful aspect of the story, wonderfully handled by Tracey, is its depiction of the casual cruelty of the righteous folk who think they should be thanked as they break families apart. This novel is based on members of the author's own family; baby Homer became William Lozier Gaston, who's Tracey's great-great grandfather. An often painful but uplifting novel by a writer at the top of her game.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 16, 2023
      In this vivid historical novel, Tracey (author of Tongues of Angels) finds inspiration in her own ancestry, drawing on her great-great grandfather’s family, the Loziers, as they struggle to overcome heartbreak, poverty, guilt, and grief in the rugged Manhattan of the late 19th century. Recently widowed Martha and her four young children are forced to flee their Hudson Valley farm after a sleazy attorney tries to make them his wards. Once in New York, Martha, an aspiring dressmaker, Martha must do whatever she can to keep her family safe, feeding them a diet of turnips and biscuits while grieving the death of her beloved husband and shaking off the attentions of men she thinks of as “insinuating scalawag”s. Hope springs anew with the family’s discovery of The Home for the Friendless, a charity that promises to care for the children of impoverished parents. But soon Martha is shocked to discover that the Home has sent her eldest son and daughter on The Orphan Train to be indentured in other states, while the younger sons are put up for adoption.
      As the Union lists toward Civil War, Martha struggles to find her scattered family, the wrenching circumstances drawn from the actual Lozier family, though Tracey acknowledges that the hows and whys have been changed. The Bereaved is a relatable story of love, heartbreak, poverty, and healing, set in a detailed New York of watermelon sellers, haberdasheries, and “wet clothing hung like garlands of bunting at Independence Day” in the “canyon” between the buildings lining Broad Way Alley. Such detail, though, can come at the expense of pacing, as the novel is more thoughtful evocation than page turner.
      Still, some jolts of violence are upsetting, as when an “important man” preys upon Martha. Tracey deals frankly with prejudice, both in the run up to the war, and in Martha’s evolving acceptance of the Irish. The most uplifting parts focus on the Loziers working together to survive and finding moments of happiness, but the book’s heart is its bustling portrait of a city in constant change—and in a mother’s love.
      Takeaway: A mother’s desperate search in a vivid 19th century New York.
      Comparable Titles: Martin Sixsmith's The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, Elizabeth Gaffney’s Metropolis.
      Production grades
      Cover: A-
      Design and typography: A-
      Illustrations: N/A
      Editing: A
      Marketing copy: A

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