DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Mira via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

I loved the atmosphere of the novel and got totally lost in the story. Wonderful sense of time and place and a captivating plot. I really enjoy historical fiction and couldn’t wait to read more on the Foundling Hospital when I finished the novel. A meeting at the Hospital leads to an offer of employment for Bess — as nursemaid to Charlotte, whose mother Alexandra is widowed.The characters are splendid. Icy Alexandra and strong, able Bess, with her ne’er-do-well brother, Ned, and kind, reserved father, Abe. Bess Bright has discovered that she’s with child. Unmarried, and poor, the best option for girls in her predicament is the Foundling Hospital. Founded by Sir Thomas Coram in 1739 to look after babies whose parents were unable to care for them, admittance was by lottery, as demand exceeded available spaces.

THE LOST ORPHAN has mystery, historical fiction, a main character with agoraphobic problems that stem from an incident in her childhood, secrets, and to what lengths a mother's love takes her. 5/5 Bess was devastated when she found out someone had taken her daughter. When she questioned the governors of the Foundling, they had no answer, but her second try at finding something out had her introduced to a doctor who was going to try to help her.

lucycrichton

This story is narrated by two women: (1) Bess Bright, a young, lower-class boiled shrimp vendor living in the slums with her father Abe and useless brother Ned, and (2) Alexandra Callard, a youngish rich widow living a pampered but extremely limited life.

Alexandra was a complex character, not at all like what she appeared to be on the surface. She comes across as emotionally unresponsive, but she is stitched together with trauma, and as more and more details are revealed as the novel progresses, it becomes impossible to take her at face value. Bess was less complex, but driven by a mother’s love and fury at her circumstances costing her the ability to fulfil that role, and in this, she was a formidable character with much about her to be admired. I thoroughly enjoyed The Foundling by Stacey Halls. It had all of the ingredients I love in an historical fiction novel and I highly recommend it. Stacey Halls has done it again! I was so mesmerised by The Foundling that I read it in one sitting. If you enjoyed the writing style of The Familiars and the mix of fiction and history, then you will ADORE this one as well. The Foundling is a story of two women living lives as far removed from each other as possible. It’s a rather feminist story, which I appreciated greatly, and very atmospheric. Within each woman’s perspective, the reader was invited to step into their lives, be it gilded or impecunious, and to experience what day to day living might have been like for an 18th century woman living in London. Connected by a man and a child, these two women overcome much to eventually work together towards a mutual solution to their problem. In this, the novel really shines, as it depicts each woman assuming agency over her own life.Despite this, comments on the book as a whole were positive, though the cover description of the author as “the new Hilary Mantel” was widely unaccepted by this group.

Bess never stopped thinking of her daughter, and when she finally scraped together two Pounds with the intent to retrieve her daughter six years later, she was in for an unwelcome surprise. I won't divulge more, although the publisher's blurb might have already done so. Suffice it to say that a mystery and fraud were perpetrated, and the author caused me some serious heart palpitations and nail biting before the novel ending. Although she’s sad to be asking for the chance to leave Clara in their care, Bess sets her mind to patiently saving the money needed to reclaim her. Like the other mothers, Bess also leaves a token by which Clara can be identified. Who has taken Clara? There is little meaningful examination of what the future holds for a child raised in the life that Bess can offer and rather short-sightedly her character expresses no qualms about taking a child from a charmed life of privilege and comfort to the hard labour and iniquities of life in the working classes. Doctor Mead is the third main player in the story and is essentially an unofficial arbiter acting as an impartial sounding board, rather reminiscent of King Solomon in the bible! The supporting cast are colourful but very stereotypical from Alexandra’s flamboyant and decadent sister, Ambrosia, to Bess’s ne’er-do-well sot of a brother, Ned, and impish link-boy, Lyle. These feminine vessels we inhabited: why did nobody expect them to contain unfeminine feelings? Why could we, too, not be furious and scornful and entirely altered by grief? Why must we accept the cards we had been dealt?’ This book was released in the U.K. in February of this year with the title THE FOUNDLING. I actually prefer that title to THE LOST ORPHAN, the one given this April 2020 U.S. release. I guess it was thought that we Yanks would not know what a foundling is, so the powers that be who name books were keeping it simple for us? Whatever the case and whatever its name, this sophomore effort by Stacey Halls (after her debut work THE FAMILIARS) is definitely worth the read.

Bess and Alexandra's lives become entwined when Bess is hired as nursemaid to Charlotte, this through the intervention of Dr. Mead, a director at the Foundling Home where Bess had left her baby years ago and, coincidentally, Alexandra's only friend. It's pretty obvious early on the true connection these two have but there are a few puzzling how's and why's that will be revealed. But, more to the point, this is a great story about social injustice, about motherhood, about love and connection. About what makes for a good mother. What is more important: love and affection in a life of dire poverty, or a life of luxury without that affection? The majority of the reading group said they enjoyed this book. Several people commented that they found it very readable, with a nice writing style and a good pace. They liked the historical detail and felt that they learned something about life in London in the later eighteenth century, the Foundling Hospital and the way it worked, and the kindly Thomas Coram. Some readers found the characters interesting, particularly Alexandra, whose problems were unfolded gradually, with hints of agarophobia or Aspergers, and eventually revealed as PTSD from a childhood trauma. London is evoked in its dank and dangerous glory. It reeks of inequality and poverty. Contrast part one which is firmly set in the area of Ludgate Hill to part two, where we meet the Bloomsbury wealth and the mysterious widow who refuses to leave her home. She reluctantly employs a nursemaid and you just know there are secrets and pain in that house. They seep through the plush wallpaper slowly but surely and into the streets where the carriage smash them up on the cobbles with the permanents of Bess’ story. What a depiction of two women’s stories and the London of that time.