Engrossing 5-Star Historical Fiction

The Foundling by Ann Leary

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was pleasantly surprised by this story. I didn’t know much about this book, what it was supposed to be about or anything so going off the cover and some speculation I had kind of thought this might be a suspense or mystery/thriller type read, but this was historical fiction and end up being one of the few books I’ve read recently that was a 5 star read.
This is about a girl named Mary Engle in 1927, who is 18 and gets hired to be a secretary for a Doctor and a woman Doctor at that. Mary is instantly in awe and full of admiration for this Doctor Agnes Vogel, who’s in charge of the remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. As it turns out Dr. Vogel was the only woman in her class in medical school and she spoke out about women’s suffrage. Now Dr. Vogel runs this public asylum and everyone admires her and how dedicated she is to taking care of these poor and vulnerable women under her care.
The problem starts when Mary learns and then sees a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of these poor women at the asylum under the Doctor’s care and it doesn’t make sense to Mary why this girl from her childhood, Lillian, is there at this mental institution. Lillian approaches Mary to ask her in secret to help her to escape from this asylum and Mary doesn’t know what to think or what to do about it. What happens and the sequence of events that come after Mary decides what to do with Lillian and whether to help her or not leave them with life-altering consequences.
It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride with some twists and turns that threw me off a bit. I was shocked by some of what I read and heard in this story and wonder what things were really like back then. This is the second historical fiction book I’ve read recently about how poorly women were or could be treated back then in the late 1800s and early 1900s etc. This is the second book I have read about a mental institution for women that was more like a prison and not used for giving real care to those who were in need of it. It’s a bit disturbing reading about these kinds of things and makes you wonder. I would recommend this book and further reading/researching on this kind of thing in history too if that interests you like it did me.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books for letting me read and review this very interesting read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.



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