Where We Belong: An Orphan Train Novel
The Depression devastates Callum Hollbrook. He loses a steady job. His wife dies giving birth to their second daughter. He places both girls in a New York City orphanage but promises to take them back when he can. After years of struggle, in 1931 he finds full-time factory work, a small apartment, and enough money left over to reclaim his girls, named Evvie and Winnie. Evvie is now thirteen and Winnie four. But three weeks before Callum could fetch them, the orphanage shipped the girls out on an orphan train headed to the Midwest.
Hester Haak, a 37-year-old widow in small-town Millersberg, Kansas, runs a modest store and owns a small house. Millersberg is not far from the final stop of the orphan train. Hester yearns to adopt one of the remaining orphans, although single women do not qualify for orphaned children. Both Hollbrook girls and a charming young boy go home with Hester—at least until the authorities might let her keep them.
Callum strives to locate his girls and money for train tickets and get time off without losing his job. The young boy and Winnie quickly bond with Hester, but Evvie plans to flee back to New York and find her dad. She resists everything kind-hearted Hester does for her.
Callum and Hester’s conflicting quests tug at readers. Will Callum find his girls, and will they return to New York? Will Hester finally become a mother and for which children? Accidents and illnesses complicate all plans. The main and many secondary characters think, talk, and act with an authenticity that pulls readers into their feelings and surroundings. It is easy to want both Hester and Callum to succeed and for all the children to thrive, but that seems impossible. Highly recommended as an affecting family saga.
