It's 1927 and eighteen-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. She's immediately in awe of her employer-brilliant, genteel Dr. Agnes Vogel.
Dr. Vogel had been the only woman in her class in medical school. As a young psychiatrist she was an outspoken crusader for women's suffrage. Now, at age forty, Dr. Vogel runs one of the largest and most self-sufficient public asylums for women in the country. Mary deeply admires how dedicated the doctor is to the poor and vulnerable women under her care.
Soon after she's hired, Mary learns that a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of the inmates. Mary remembers Lillian as a beautiful free spirit with a sometimes-tempestuous side. Could she be mentally disabled? When Lillian begs Mary to help her escape, alleging the asylum is not what it seems, Mary is faced with a terrible choice. Should she trust her troubled friend with whom she shares a dark childhood secret? Mary's decision triggers a hair-raising sequence of events with life-altering consequences for all.
Inspired by a true story about the author's grandmother, The Foundling offers a rare look at a shocking chapter of American history. This gripping page-turner will have readers on the edge of their seats right up to the stunning last page...asking themselves, "Did this really happen here?"
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I'VE been told that my mother had a wonderful sense of humour. ONE
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(@simonschusterUK, 31 May 2022, ebook, 336 pages, #ARC from the publisher via @ edelweiss_squad)
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I thought The Foundling was a terrific read. The author does a brilliant job of bringing 1927 to life; the social norms, the culture, society and the startling differences between the rich and poor and men and women. The book is hard going because it deals with some dark subject matter especially eugenics and the treatment of the feebleminded in the asylum most of whom clearly don't belong there and are just women who don't do what they're told by men. This is a corker.
