Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, 2013

Recommended by a close friend who is also an avid reader, Orphan Train is a stark contrast to the Crazy Rich Asian world that I just left.

Molly is a Maine high schooler who has grown up in foster care.  With an alcoholic father who passes away in a car accident and a drug addicted absent mother, Molly is used to being alone, unloved and uncared for, an outsider.

She crosses path with Vivian Daly, an octogenarian from the midwest who retired to Maine and lives in a grand home by the sea, when she is forced to do community service for stealing a dog-eared copy of Jane Eyre from the library.

While helping Vivian clear away her attic as part of her community service hours, Molly is drawn into Vivian's startling childhood on the historically accurate orphan train that brought her from New York City to Minnesota in the 1920s.

Powerfully written, Vivian's story unfolds in the Midwest as she helplessly goes through abusive foster homes.  Her name is changed from the Irish Niamph to Dorothy.  She lives in squalor with no indoor plumbing or electricity.  She is only nine-years-old and helpless to change her circumstances.

Because of a kind teacher, Vivian finally finds a caring home and although her foster parents will never truly compare to the parents that she lost, she is cared for, fed and treated like a daughter.

A page-turner like the best mysteries, Orphan Train makes my heart ache for the many children out there without families or any sense of security, who are vulnerable and so helpless.

A backdrop for the story, the state of Maine stirred up memories of my recent camping trip there when I fell in love with the state.  Being so close to the forest and the sea truly inspires creativity and creates a very special vibe. 

The author, Christina Baker Kline, lives in New York City, but spends time in Maine.  Reading Orphan Train makes me want to buy a quaint Maine home on a lake and write powerful novels.

If only it was that simple...  I'd be writing novels in Maine and not blogging about books I've read in Boston.

An update a month later: I loved Orphan Train so much, that I was really looking forward to Kline's The Way Life Should Be, 2007.  The story centers around a NYC woman who decides to leave the bustle of the city to live in a small town in Maine, where the man she just met online lives.

Kline's ability to capture truism is in the story - how on internet dating profiles, everyone loves hiking!  And as protagonist Angela Russo observes, 'In my experience, when somebody says "Relax, I'm joking," they usually aren't.'

The humor is there as well.  When Angela spies a truck with flames on the back of her new love interest's truck, she hopefully wonders that trucks come off the assembly floors like that and that's why he has them on his truck...

I relate to Angela's apparently crazy and impulsive decision to move to Maine.  I've been in a rut before where I was more than ready to make a situation far more than it really was, and made a major life decision.

(It did not work out and I'm thankful that I had my family to lean on when things fell through.)

Despite being able to relate to the protagonist, and really enjoying how Kline captures human nuances, I found The Way Life Should Be tedious and could not finish the story.