A coming-of-age novel set in 1965 California tells the story of a young woman's passage from the troubled family she's longing to escape to the family she struggles to create when pregnancy forces her into an adulthood for which she is not prepared. A first novel. Tour.
PRAISE for Ann Darby's THE ORPHAN GAME"Passionate, heartfelt storytelling-Ann Darby holdsnothing back. THE ORPHAN GAME is a moving portrait of the way we learn to care for ourselves, taking from others not what we want, but what they can give us, and accepting that gift with grace." --A. Manette Ansay, author of SISTER and RIVER ANGEL
"Even if Ann Darby didn't write like a dream, the story she weaves here would leave you gasping for air. But her sentences are so finely chiseled, so full of desire and despair and relief, that she leaves you utterly breathless -- and perfectly grateful for the experience." --Stephen J. Dubner, author of TURBULENT SOULS
"Everybody in THE ORPHAN GAME has dreams, and they all learn, as they must, the difference between wanting and striving. Longing is a palpable presence in this accomplished first novel, as are the finely differentiated voices, the Southern Californian setting of the 60's, and the lovely, mature intelligence of Ann Darby. It's so nice when a writer uses the best fabric to cut an elegant novel." --Sandra Scofield, author of PLAIN SEEING and A CHANCE TO SEE EGYPT
"THE ORPHAN GAME is so sweet, sexy, poignant and real, and in the end so transcendent, that reading it I was a kid again, a kid inside my first great book and only sad to see the pages end. Ann Darby's women tell their intertwined stories of loss and self-discovery and redemption with so much feeling and beauty that I swore I heard the voices of richly troubled angels singing. --Bill Roorbach, author of SUMMERS WITH JULIET and WRITING LIFE STORIES
"With keen vision and perfect pitch, Ann Darby has written a wonderfully rendered novel about discovering first love, facing broken dreams, and feeling orphaned in the midst of family. Heartbreaking and poignant, it portrays how a family breaks apart, and yet is still bound together by love-however ragged it may be. With THE ORPHAN GAME, Darby has graced us with an exquisite and wise first novel." --Myra McLarey, author of WATER FROM THE WELL
"Ann Darby has created a deft and loving portrait of the Harris family-and all its tensions-in her THE ORPHAN GAME. I look forward to seeing more from her." --Elizabeth Evans, author of THE BLUE HOUR and CARTER CLAY
