Such a fan of this book! Orphan Number Eight is a stunning debut novel in the vein of Sarah Waters’ historical fiction, and a great choice for book clubs since it’s inspired by true events and has significant moral dilemmas. A lot of things to discuss!
1919. Rachel Rabinowitz is a smart, lively four-year-old living with her brother, Sam, and their parents in a crowded tenement on the Lower East Side of New York City. When tragedy strikes the family, Rachel is separated from her brother and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research using the children as her subjects.
Rachel is given x-ray treatments that leave her permanently disfigured, and suffers through years of harassment at the orphanage, relieved only by her deepening friendship with Naomi. At fifteen, she betrays her friend and runs away to Leadville, Colorado to find the brother she lost and discovers a family she never knew she had.
Fast forward to 1954, and Rachel is a nurse at Manhattan’s Old Hebrews Home. She thinks she has put her painful childhood behind her…until elderly Dr. Solomon becomes her patient, forcing her to confront the past.
This is a beautifully written novel about the unexpected choices we are compelled to make that can shape our destinies. Plus the imagery of NYC is lush! You can hear the ocean at Coney Island, feel the heat from walking city streets in Summer, and visualize each building from tenement to orphanage. So good!
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– Annie