Video:
Questions:
- How close are the events you describe in the novel to real life? (00:19)
- Did situations like the Grotes’ home really exist? (01:19)
- Was it common for train riders to keep their experiences secret? (02:35)
- How did most train riders ultimately feel about having been put on a train? (03:50)
- Did the research for this book give you a bleak perspective of human nature? (05:48)
- Why did you write a novel – and not nonfiction — about the orphan trains? (07:47)
- Did you know everything that would happen in the novel when you started, or did you change things as you went along? (09:00)
- Why did Maisie have to die? (10:57)
- Why didn’t you show the reunion between Vivian and Sarah? (11:58)
- And finally … the question every book club asks: Why did Vivian give away her daughter? (13:28)
