2025 Literary Titan Book Award Gold Medalist in Fiction
"Watson’s writing hits like a storm. The language is raw, unvarnished, and aching with honesty."—Literary Titan, 5-star review
Description
A debut historical fiction for fans of Kristin Hannah and John Steinbeck, Orphans of the Living follows the Stovall family’s early 20th-century quest for home and redemption as they confront racism, poverty, and inequality across the American South and West.
In the shadow of the Great Depression and Jim Crow south of the 1930s, an impoverished white family escapes—with the help of Black sharecroppers—from a vengeful Mississippi plantation overseer intent on lynching them. Arriving in California to start a new life, Barney and Lula Stovall are haunted by the past, the children they’ve left behind, and the daughter they cannot love or protect.
Orphans of the Living follows the peripatetic life of the Stovall family, woven from four parallel stories: Barney and Lula Stovall, and two of their nine children, Glen and Nora Mae.
Their California sojourn—from their hardscrabble dairy farm, to the brig at the San Francisco Presidio, to the building of the Golden Gate Bridge—lead them on paths toward each other and forgiveness. But redemption doesn't come to them all.
Reviews
". . . a thoughtful and deliberate piece of literary fiction on both individual and collective experiences when caught between survival, remorse, and hope."—Readers' Favorite, 5-star review
"The author notes 'This book is a work of fiction. It’s also true.' In this sense, she taps into her mother’s family history for inspiration, with an unsparing look that seems to come from deep inside her at the hardships and tragedies of the agrarian working class based on experiences of real people."—Historical Novels Review
"The prose is powerful, often lyrical, and the narrative frequently heartbreaking. This is the kind of novel that may leave readers with the same sense of weary sorrow that accompanies a reading of The Grapes of Wrath."—Southern Literary Review
