Keeper of Lost Children
A Novel
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5.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The House of Eve, one American woman’s vision in post WWII Germany will tie together three people in an unexpected way.
Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American Officer, is living in Occupied Germany in the 1950s. After discovering a local orphanage filled with the abandoned mixed-race children of German women and Black American GI’s, Ethel feels compelled to help find these children homes.
Philadelphia born Ozzie Phillips volunteers for the recently desegregated army in 1948, eager to make his mark in the world. While serving in Manheim, Germany, he meets a local woman, Jelka, and the two embark on a relationship that will impact their lives forever.
In 1965 Maryland, Sophia Clark is given an opportunity to attend a prestigious all white boarding school and escape her heartless parents. While at the school, she discovers a secret that upends her world and sends her on a quest to unravel her own identity.
Toggling between the lives of these three individuals, Keeper of Lost Children explores how one woman’s vision will change the course of countless lives, and demonstrates that love in its myriad of forms—familial, parental, and forbidden, even love of self—can be transcendent.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Bridging postwar Germany and 1960s America, Sadeqa Johnson’s expansive historical novel delivers a deeply felt story about lineage and belonging. In occupied Germany, Ethel Gathers discovers an orphanage for the mixed-race children of Black American GIs and German women and resolves to secure their futures. In 1965 Maryland, scholarship student Sophia Clark arrives at an all-white boarding school and befriends Max, a boy adopted from a German orphanage, which stirs questions about her own past. With large historical forces anchored in intimate, character-driven scenes, Johnson explores adoption, identity, and the cost of silence. The dual-timeline structure locks cleanly into place as revelations surface. Meanwhile, period details, from barracks routines to paperwork hurdles, feel exact and purposeful, making the history vivid as the narrative stays focused on consequence and heart. Keeper of Lost Children offers a thoughtful meditation on family, courage, and ties that refuse to fade.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The assured latest from Johnson (The House of Eve) links the stories of three Black Americans in Europe and the U.S. after WWII. It begins in 1965 Maryland, where Black teenager Sophia Clark escapes the drudgery of farm work after receiving a scholarship to an elite boarding school. She bonds with classmate Max, a Black boy who was adopted from a German orphanage, and she wonders why "something stirred inside her" when he speaks in German. Meanwhile, in 1950s Germany, Ethel Gathers, whose husband is serving in the Army, adopts from a local orphanage multiple mixed-race children who were born to American GIs stationed in Germany and works to find homes in the U.S. for the orphanage's other mixed-race children. The third story line takes place in 1948 Mannheim, Germany, where Ozzie Philips, a soldier from Philadelphia, has an affair with Jelka, a white German woman who becomes pregnant with his child. He and Jelka bond over love for their child until he's stationed elsewhere following the Army's desegregation. Johnson expertly weaves the narrative threads together, not only through the characters' shared experiences with racism but also through their individual connections to the German orphanage. The resulting tale offers an immersive view into an overlooked legacy of WWII.
