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Sign up todayThe Foundling
A Novel
Narrator
Laura Benanti
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Length
12 hours 40 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Mary spends most of her childhood in a Catholic orphanage, before going to live with her aunt and uncle. Never truly welcomed and cared for by them, she is elated when at 18 she is offered a job as a secretary at Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Nettleton is operated by the renowned and brilliant Dr. Agnes Vogel, psychiatrist, suffragist, and eugenicist. At first, Mary is awe-struck by the great kindness and service Dr. Vogel provides her vulnerable young patients, and quickly becomes the doctor’s most trusted assistant. In time, however, she learns that all is not what it seems at Nettleton. She eventually faces a decision of far-reaching and potentially deadly consequences. Inspired by actual events, this page-turner exposes horrific, and rarely spoken of, beliefs and practices in U.S. history.”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store
Bookseller recommendation
“Mary spends most of her childhood in a Catholic orphanage, before going to live with her aunt and uncle. Never truly welcomed and cared for by them, she is elated when at 18 she is offered a job as a secretary at Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Nettleton is operated by the renowned and brilliant Dr. Agnes Vogel, psychiatrist, suffragist, and eugenicist. At first, Mary is awe-struck by the great kindness and service Dr. Vogel provides her vulnerable young patients, and quickly becomes the doctor’s most trusted assistant. In time, however, she learns that all is not what it seems at Nettleton. She eventually faces a decision of far-reaching and potentially deadly consequences. Inspired by actual events, this page-turner exposes horrific, and rarely spoken of, beliefs and practices in U.S. history.”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good House, the “harrowing, gripping, and beautiful” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) story of two friends, raised in the same orphanage, whose loyalty is put to the ultimate test when they meet years later at an institution—based on a shocking and little-known piece of American history.
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 is compelling, unsettling, and “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” (Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author).
Ann Leary is the New York Times bestselling author of a memoir and four novels including The Good House. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages, and she has written for The New York Times, Ploughshares, NPR, Redbook, and Real Simple, among other publications. Her essay, “Rallying to Keep the Game Alive,” was adapted for Prime Video’s television series, Modern Love. Her novel The Good House was adapted as a motion picture starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline. She lives with her husband in New York. Visit her online at AnnLeary.com.
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