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End-of-the-Year Contest 2015

Congratulations to the winners of our 2015 End-of-the-Year Contest! One Grand Prize winner received all 33 of Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2015, while 11 others won a selection of three of these titles. You can see all the winners below, along with 2015's Bets On selections.

Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade

A stunning debut novel in the vein of Sarah Waters’ historical fiction and inspired by true events, ORPHAN #8 tells the fascinating story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage.

Week of August 3, 2015

Releases for the week of August 3rd include THE SECRET PLACE, a powerful, haunting exploration of friendship and loyalty, and a gripping addition to Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series; TERMINAL CITY, another breakneck thriller from Linda Fairstein, who this time turns her attention to one of New York's most iconic structures --- Grand Central Terminal; ORPHAN #8 by debut novelist Kim van Alkemade, the fascinating story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage; and Tom Clavin's RECKLESS, the unlikely story of a racehorse who truly became a war hero, beloved by the Marine Corps and decorated for bravery.

Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade

In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious four-year-old living with her family in a crowded tenement on New York City’s Lower Eastside. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother Sam and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave her disfigured, Rachel suffers years of cruel harassment from the other orphans. But when she turns 15, she runs away to Colorado hoping to find the brother she lost and discovers a family she never knew she had.

Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade

August 2015

Last year, I read THE PAYING GUESTS by Sarah Waters and enjoyed it. When I saw that ORPHAN #8 by Kim van Alkemade was being compared to it, as a historical fiction title, it immediately caught my attention. The book opens in the early 1900s with Rachel Rabinowitz becoming orphaned at the age of four, separated from her brother and placed in the Hebrew Infant Home in Manhattan. While her family home was a crowded tenement, the orphanage she moves to lacks much beyond the basics, the victim of poor funding and overcrowding. There are moments of hope for adoption and a better life that are quickly dashed, and Rachel realizes that life for her will be within the orphanage walls.

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