From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good House, the “harrowing, gripping, and beautiful” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) story of two friends, raised in the same orphanage, whose loyalty is put to the ultimate test when they meet years later at an institution—based on a shocking and little-known piece of American history. It’s 1927 and eighteen-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. She’s immediately in awe of her employer—brilliant, genteel Dr. Agnes Vogel. Dr. Vogel had been the only woman in her class in medical school. As a young psychiatrist she was an outspoken crusader for women’s suffrage. Now, at age forty, Dr. Vogel runs one of the largest and most self-sufficient public asylums for women in the country. Mary deeply admires how dedicated the doctor is to the poor and vulnerable women under her care. Soon after she’s hired, Mary learns that a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of the inmates. Mary remembers Lillian as a beautiful free spirit with a sometimes-tempestuous side. Could she be mentally disabled? When Lillian begs Mary to help her escape, alleging the asylum is not what it seems, Mary is faced with a terrible choice. Should she trust her troubled friend with whom she shares a dark childhood secret? Mary’s decision triggers a hair-raising sequence of events with life-altering consequences for all. Inspired by a true story about the author’s grandmother, The Foundling is compelling, unsettling, and “a stunning reminder that not much time has passed since everyone claimed to know what was best for a woman—everyone except the woman herself” (Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author).

This is the inspiring and “page-turning” (Booklist) true story of a man who discovered that he had been kidnapped as a baby—and how his quest to find out who he really is upturned the genealogy industry, his own family, and set in motion the second longest cold case in US history. In 1964, a woman pretending to be a nurse kidnapped an infant boy named Paul Fronczak from a Chicago hospital. Two years later, police found a boy abandoned outside a variety store in New Jersey. The FBI tracked down Dora Fronczak, the kidnapped infant’s mother, and she identified the abandoned boy as her son. The family spent the next fifty years believing they were whole again—but Paul was always unsure about his true identity. Then, four years ago—spurred on by the birth of his first child, Emma Faith—Paul took a DNA test. The test revealed that he was definitely not Paul Fronczak. From that moment on, Paul has been on a tireless mission to find the man whose life he’s been living—and to discover who abandoned him, and why. Poignant and inspiring, The Foundling is a story about a child lost and a faith found, about the permanence of families and the bloodlines that define you, and about the emotional toll of both losing your identity and rediscovering who you truly are.

"What happens when a many-titled Duke decides to play hookey from his suffociaating dignity..."—Kirkus Reviews The Duke of Sale is out to prove himself The shy, young Duke of Sale has never known his parents. Instead, his Grace Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware, Gilly for short, has endured twenty-four years of rigorous mollycoddling from his uncle and valet. But his natural diffidence conceals a rebellious spirit. A mysterious beauty provides the perfect opportunity When Gilly hears of Belinda, the beautiful foundling who appears to be blackmailing his cousin, he absconds with glee. But he has no sooner entered this new and dangerous world than he is plunged into a frenzy of intrigue, kidnapping, adventure, and surprises at every turn. "Orphaned at birth, bullied by his well-meaning guardian, hemmed in by the affectionate ministrations of a small army of family retainers, His Grace of Sale had reached the age of 24 without ever making a decision for himself In all his life the titular master of Sale House, duke, marquis, earl, thrice baron, had never so much as selected a cravat for his own wardrobe ... One morning, in a moment of unaccustomed resolution, His Grace made up his mind. 'I shall try to discover,' he decided, 'whether I am a man, or only a duke.'"—New York Times Book Review

The captivating Sunday Times bestseller from the author of The Familiars Two women, bound by a child, and a secret that will change everything . . . London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, Bess is astonished to be told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why. Less than a mile from Bess's lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart. From the bestselling author of The Familiars comes this captivating story of mothers and daughters, class and power, and love against the greatest of odds . . . 'The new Hilary Mantel' COSMOPOLITAN 'Stacey Halls is a writer of great originality, great imagination and great sense of place. Atmospheric, intelligent, accessible, every novel is worth reading, then reading again and again' KATE MOSSE Another gripping, immersive, intelligent work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Familiars' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, author of THE MERCIES A moving, atmospheric chiller' INDEPENDENT 'A breathtaking achievement' SUNDAY EXPRESS 'Enjoyable and atmospheric' THE TIMES 'Historical drama at its very best' MY WEEKLY **MRS ENGLAND: the brand new novel from Stacey Halls is out now** *Sunday Times bestseller February and September 2020* *Winner of Women's Prize for Fiction x Good Housekeeping Futures award - Good Housekeeping 14 Oct 2022*

First published in 1951, this is the simple, heart-warming story of a baby left by its mother in a great cathedral in New York, and of the man who found it. Opening immediately after World War I, the story centers on Paul Taggart, a returned soldier, who had lost an arm in the war and who also carried on his face a disfiguring scar. It was at Christmas time that Paul entered the cathedral and there, in the crib, discovered Peter, the small helpless foundling who was to mean so much to him in the future... A compassionate, moving story.

Having grown up in a home for foundlings and pssessin a girl's name, Rossamünd sets out to report to his new job as a lamplighter and has several adventures along the way as he meets people and monsters who are more complicated that he previously thought. Includes glossaries and maps.

Through compelling black-and-white photography and informative, engaging text, this book chronicles the work of one of the nation's most remarkable social service institutions, the New York Foundling Hospital. As this book eloquently demonstrates, the Foundling is an institution that from its very inception was committed to helping society's most vulnerable members: children.