A powerful novel of friendship set in a traveling circus during World War II, The Orphans Tale introduces two extraordinary women and their harrowing stories of sacrifice and survival
Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep... When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night.
Noa finds refuge with a German circus, but she must learn the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid. At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond. But as the facade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their friendship is enough to save one anotheror if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything.
Praise for the novels of Pam Jenoff
A heartbreakingly romantic story of forbidden love during WW2
Heat
Must-read
Daily Express
A beautiful story of love and redemption about a woman struggling to find her voice and her way amidst the turmoil of World War II.
Kristin Hannah, bestselling author of The Nightingale
A warm and heartfelt story of emotional survival.
Diane Chamberlain
When it comes to bringing an era to life, this author has no peer.
Susan Wiggs
Heartfelt, stirring... Definitely one for my keeper shelf.
Karen White
The kind of book that absorbs you from the beginning and doesnt let go.
Beatriz Williams
Powerfully and emotionally written.... This is a book youll want to read more than once.
RT Book Reviews, 4.5 stars
Fans of Kate Morton and Alyson Richman should reach for Jenoffs latest.
Booklist
Also by Pam Jenoff
Kommandants Girl
The Diplomats Wife
The Ambassadors Daughter
The Winter Guest
The Last Embrace
Copyright
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2017
Copyright © Pam Jenoff 2017
Pam Jenoff asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authors imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read
the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © January 2017 ISBN: 9781474056700
Version: 2018-07-10
For my family.
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
Praise
Also by Pam Jenoff
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Authors Note
Acknowledgments
Questions for Discussion
A Conversation with Pam Jenoff
Extract
About the Publisher
Prologue
Paris
They will be looking for me by now.
I pause on the granite steps of the museum, reaching for the railing to steady myself. Pain, sharper than ever, creaks through my left hip, not perfectly healed from last years break. Across the Avenue Winston Churchill, behind the glass dome of the Grand Palais, the March sky is rosy at dusk.
I peer around the edge of the arched entranceway of the Petit Palais. From the massive stone columns hangs a red banner two stories high: Deux Cents ans de Magie du CirqueTwo Hundred Years of Circus Magic. It is festooned with elephants, a tiger and a clown, their colors so much brighter in my memories.
I should have told someone I was going. They would have only tried to stop me, though. My escape, months in the planning since Id read about the upcoming exhibit in the Times, had been well orchestrated: I had bribed an aide at the nursing home to take the photo I needed to mail to the passport office, paid for the plane ticket in cash. Id almost been caught when the taxicab Id called pulled up in front of the home in the predawn darkness and honked loudly. But the guard at the desk remained asleep.
Summoning my strength now, I begin to climb again, taking each painful step one by one. Inside the lobby, the opening gala is already in full swing, clusters of men in tuxedos and women in evening gowns mingling beneath the elaborately painted dome ceiling. Conversations in French bubble around me like a long-forgotten perfume I am desperate to inhale. Familiar words trickle back, first in a stream then a river, though Ive scarcely heard them in half a century.