THE BOOK FAIR

Kim van Alkemade

Orphan #8

In 1918, Kim van Alkemade’s grandmother, Fannie Berger, abandoned by her husband and no longer able to feed and care for her three sons, walked into the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.  Fannie’s boys received the needed bed and board, and Fannie secured a job in the orphanage.  On the basis of her grandmother's story, Ms. Van Alkemade based her novel.

 

Unexpectedly orphaned, four year old Rachel and six year old Sam Rabinowitz land in the Orphaned Hebrews Home.  Sam is taken to the children’s ward where he attends school and manages the cold, dormitory life.  Ruth however, is taken to the infant wing of the home where she suffers medical experiments.

Years later, grown into their teens, Sam and Ruth decide they have had enough of life in the Home.  Sixteen year old Sam leaves in search of relatives.  Ruth later decides to follow her brother, and in doing so, makes two decisions before leaving that haunt her for years to come.

Eventually, Ruth returns to New York where she completes her nursing degree and finds work in the Old Hebrews Home.  One day, to her surprise, Ruth learns Dr. Mildred Solomon, the very doctor who exposed her as a child to harsh experiments, has been transferred to her floor.   Ruth struggles between the moral expectation of keeping her patient safe from harm, and her feelings of hate towards the doctor who permanently damaged her.

In her private life, Ruth struggles in her relationship with her partner, Naomi, over an unnecessary theft and lie. 

 

The book’s synopsis implies an interesting moral conflict a nurse confronts in dealing with a patient under her care:  A doctor who harmed her years before.  The central theme of the novel however, pivots and evolves into Ruth’s theft, lie and love affair with Naomi, which covers a great deal of the plot and was omitted from the jacket cover.  The author details sensitive passages of the orphans.