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First Published:
May 2022, 336 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2023, 336 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Grace Graham-Taylor
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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good House, the story of two friends, raised in the same orphanage, whose loyalty is put to the ultimate test when they meet years later at a controversial institution - one as an employee; the other, an inmate.
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?"
When we were little girls, after lessons and before prayers, Sister Rosemary, the night matron, read aloud to us. She sat in a lumpy old upholstered armchair in front of the stove, often with a colicky infant or two on her wide lap. We never grew tired of hearing the same few books owned by the orphanage. David Copperfield, Five Little Peppers, Pollyanna—there were one or two others, and for the rest of my life, when I reread these stories, all the characters spoke with Sister Roseamary's thick Irish brogue.
One hot summer night, when I was around six or seven, Lillian Faust returned to the ward with a plaster cast on her arm. She'd fallen out of the giant elm in the courtyard that afternoon and had been taken to the hospital. Now, her eyes were still puffy and red from crying, but as we crowded around her, she proudly showed off her cast like it was a trophy.
Sister Rosemary had been reading to us while giving a baby her bottle. She put down the book and said, "I hear you were...
The Foundling by Ann Leary explores the exploitation of working-class girls at the time, whose so-called moral impropriety made them easy fodder for eugenicist experiments. At the same time, the story is packed with action, romance and drama — perfect for a little bit of escapism, or a break from watching TV soaps. Like a sweet candy with a bitter center, The Foundling is a feminist horror story wrapped up in a beach read. Leary is excellent at portraying the perversion of a feminist cause, showing how those who claim to support women's advancement can still perpetuate the patriarchal logic that has long kept women down...continued
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(Reviewed by Grace Graham-Taylor).
Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnolia Palace
Leary's latest is a stunning tale of corruption, compassion, and hope, and includes one of the best endings I've read in ages. She's reached back in history and uncovered a shockingly true story, one that resonates strongly today. Full of jaw-dropping twists and intriguing characters – you won't be able to put it down. Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here
Ann Leary's The Foundling is a compelling, shocking record of a too-hidden piece of history - when eugenics was commonly applauded as progressive social science…A stunning reminder that not much time has passed since everyone claimed to know what was best for a woman - everyone except the woman herself. Laura Dave, New York Times Bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
Ann Leary is a remarkable storyteller, and The Foundling is harrowing, gripping, and beautiful. You'll be thinking about these characters long after you turn the last page..png "Sybil Neville-Rolfe")
Dr. Agnes Vogel, The Foundling's complicated eugenicist arch-villain, has many real analogues in history. As the eugenics movement bloomed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women played an instrumental role in how its ideas took shape. In Britain, Sybil Neville-Rolfe (née Sybil Burney) was the founder of the Eugenics Education Society, a project that sought to harness theories of biological evolution for its own vision of societal advancement. Neville-Rolfe's legacy is a dubious one; she aimed to eradicate poverty and took stances to protect and support women, but her racist, classist and homophobic beliefs led her to advocate for policies that were cruel and discriminatory. Many of her views are directly echoed by Dr. ...
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