The Orphan's Tale

Secrets, lies, and circus family during World War II

This is being described as Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants meets Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale. It is a taut historical story set during World War II and centered on two women escaping to the Circus Neuhoff. Noa is a young German woman who has recently lost a child who in a horrible (but accurate) opening scene steals a Jewish baby from an extermination camp-bound rail car, escapes into the night, and is found by the members of the circus family. Astrid a slightly older Jewish woman--forced by the Reich to divorce her German soldier husband--is being illegally sheltered by the circus and is given the task of training Noa as an aerialist. This is heartbreaking and beautiful