The Orphan's Daughter: A Novel

Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2020

The Orphan’s Daughter is a novel about a woman who grows up in the shadow of her charismatic but troubled father, a man shaped by his boyhood in a Depression-era Jewish orphanage. The two life stories are woven together to form the fabric of this funny and suspenseful work of literary fiction.

Clyde Aronson survives the cruelties of the seemingly bucolic orphanage but is left scarred. Brilliant and self-destructive, a popular high-school teacher and a callous womanizer, he yearns for a son to replace the relationship lost when his father abandoned him. Instead, he fathers two daughters. He resents most the one who most resembles him: the younger, Joanna.

Joanna Aronson is thirty, alienated and living in Southern California when she learns of her father’s puzzling illness. She returns home to Baltimore to help care for him. In the process, the two reconcile; Joanna struggles to come to terms with her own difficult history. Clyde promises to leave Joanna his collected papers, including a secret manuscript written long ago about life in the orphanage.

After Clyde’s death, Joanna’s stepmother inherits the house and all of his possessions. She refuses Joanna any access. Determined, Joanna breaks into the house and steals the manuscript. The stepmother presses charges.
Though fictional, The Orphan’s Daughter is based upon the time, from 1924 to 1934, the author’s father spent in the Hebrew National Orphan Home in Yonkers, New York.

This evocative novel incorporates contemporary feminist themes, Jewish cultural history, and a nostalgic sense of place. By turns wrenching and delightfully humorous, The Orphan’s Daughter is a deft melding of history and psychological drama, a literary page-turner you won’t want to put down.

Praise for the Author

“Cherubin’s bittersweet tale is an epic and indelible char- acter study of Clyde from frightened cub to kvetching lion in winter, with overtones of King Lear. She writes in evocative prose that mixes astringent reality with glowing reverie. An alternately dark and luminous, wounded and affectionate portrait of a family in crisis.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The Orphan’s Daughter is an emotionally charged novel about family dynamics and a daughter’s relationship with her troubled father. Jan Cherubin’s prose style is so achingly beautiful that you may find yourself revisiting the pages again and again.” —Book Genius Reviews

“The Orphan’s Daughter is poetic, engaging, and heartfelt. Life in the orphanage is searingly described, and other themes, including feminist issues and Jewish culture, are woven beautifully into the narrative. At once honest and humorous, Cherubin captures her characters with humanity and insight.” —Jewish Book Council

“Jan Cherubin writes with tenderness and force and humor. Her spellbinding debut novel, The Orphan’s Daughter, swept me away.” —E. Jean Carroll, author of What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal

“Jan Cherubin’s touch is both assured and nuanced; her story is full of vivid details and wry observations. The Orphan’s Daughter is a novel that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it.” —Daphne Merkin, author of This Close to Happy and 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love

“The Orphan’s Daughter is beautifully specific, evocative, and emotionally charged.” —Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Disturbances in the Field and Truthtelling

“The Orphan’s Daughter is both sharp and moving, which isn’t easy to pull off. The narrator, Joanna Aronson, is convincingly troubled and likable. And her father is a flat-out great character, not like anyone I’ve read about before but immediately recognizable and plausibly individual.” —David Gates, author of A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me and Jernigan