“In this rare and beautiful book, Eileen Simpson combines her vivid recollections of growing up as an orphan with an absorbing and compassionate view of the orphan as a cultural figure. An orphan by the age of six, she illuminates from the inside the experience of a little girl slowly coming of age in a world without parents, without a stable home. With her older sister as her base of companionship and strength, she was shuttled through a variety of foster homes, and her childhood was fraught with mysterious adult disappearances and life threatening illnesses. Yet there shines from every page of this extraordinary work the picture of a sensitive child who possesses a sure instinct for life.”