“YOU—THE IRISH GIRL. OVER HERE.” A THIN, SCOWLING MATRON in a white bonnet beckons with a bony finger. She must know I’m… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“It was pouring earlier, great sheets of rain, and now the clouds outside the window are crystal tipped, like mountain peaks in… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“The child you select is yours for free,” he adds, “on a ninety-day trial. At which point, if you so choose, you… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“It was worse for Mam, who discovered on the boat she was again with child and could hardly keep any food down.… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Maybe it doesn’t matter how much gets done. Maybe the value is in the process—in touching each item, in naming and identifying,… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“I’m one of few children on the train who can read. Mam taught me all my letters years ago, in Ireland, then… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“You could be my daughter, you know,” Mr. Byrne tells me. “Your name—Dorothy . . . we always said we’d give to… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“I am the only child in a room full of women and am immediately at ease.” — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“She says she can’t believe she raised a child who traveled all over the world but has been content ever since to… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“They call this an orphan train, children, and you are lucky to be on it. You are leaving behind an evil place,… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“belting out the Irish national anthem—“We’re children of a fighting race, / That never yet has known disgrace, / And as we… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Mr. Grote shows me how he grows wild rice in the stream and collects the seeds. The rice is nutty and brown. He plants… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“I try to forget the horror of what happened. Or—perhaps forget is the wrong word. How can I forget? And yet how can I… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“don’t know how much of my memory of this time is affected by my age now and how much is a result of the… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“The stark gray sky and bare tree limbs feel more suited to her than the uncomplicated promise of sunny spring days.” — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Sometimes these spirits have been more real to me than people, more real than God. They fill silence with their weight, dense and warm,… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Every Easter she and her mother planted those crocuses near the fence beside the driveway, and soon enough a whole cluster of them, white… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Mr. Kaminski pulled a chain hanging from the pressed-metal kitchen ceiling, and light seeped from a bulb, casting a wan glow over a scarred… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Before we leave the gravesite, Mary sings Mother's favorite gospel hymn ... Mary's lovely voice rises and lingers in the air, and by the… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“for the first time since the fire, my worries are gone. I feel a joy so strong it’s almost painful—a knife’s edge of joy.” — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“What was it the teacher in her Legal Issues class said the other day? Never bring up a point you don’t have an answer… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
“Mrs. Scatcherd raps Dutchy's knuckles several times with a long wooden ruler, though it seems to me a halfhearted penalty. He barely winces, then… — Christina Baker Kline Copy Share Image
