All the Children Are Home
Description
A sweeping saga in the vein of Ask
Again, Yes following a foster family through almost a decade of dazzling
triumph and wrenching heartbreak—from the author of The Orphans at Race
Point.
Set in the late 1950s through 1960s in a small town in
Massachusetts, All the Children Are Home follows the
Moscatelli family—Dahlia and Louie, foster parents, and their long-term foster
children Jimmy, Zaidie, and Jon—and the irrevocable changes in their lives when
a six-year-old indigenous girl, Agnes, comes to live with them.
When Dahlia decided to become a foster mother, she had a few
caveats: no howling newborns, no delinquents, and above all, no girls. A
harrowing incident years before left her a virtual prisoner in her own home,
forever wary of the heartbreak and limitation of a girl’s life.
Eleven years after they began fostering, Dahlia and Louie consider their family
complete, but when the social worker begs them to take a young girl who has
been horrifically abused and neglected, they can’t say no.
Six-year-old Agnes Juniper arrives with no knowledge of her
Native American heritage or herself beyond a box of trinkets given to her by
her mother and dreamlike memories of her sister. As the years pass and outside forces threaten to tear them apart,
the children, now young adults, must find the courage and resilience
to save themselves and each other. Heartfelt and enthralling, All the Children Are Home is
a moving testament to the enduring power of love in the face of devastating
loss.
More details
Person
Patry Francis was the author of All the Children Are Home, The Orphans of Race Point and The Liar’s Diary, as well as the blog “100 Days of Discipline for Writers.” Her short stories and poetry appeared in the Tampa Review, Antioch Review, Colorado Review, Ontario Review, and American Poetry Review, among other publications. She was a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and twice the recipient of the Mass Cultural Council grant.