From Plotzk to Boston

At Vilna station, a swarm of porters and cabmen surrounds the arriving family—and the uncle who was meant to meet them is nowhere in sight. Mary Antin remembers her mother escaping the crowd with their precious baggage, trusting a stranger to carry them through the city.

In 1894, thirteen-year-old Mary is leaving Plotzk with her family for America, beginning a journey by train through the Russian Empire and toward the Atlantic. The first hours bring rain, fog, sleeplessness and the strange bustle of unfamiliar stations; soon, the travelers must face a more serious obstacle. Cholera is spreading, and officials have tightened the rules for crossing from Russia into Germany. Even a special passport may not smooth the way. As uniformed men approach the train, what will they demand of the emigrants?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.