num_pages: 384
description: 2000 Whitbread Children's Book of the YearPublished to acclaim in the United Kingdom, this stunning historical novel delves into a hidden side of eighteenth-century the world of infanticide and child slavery. Otis Gardiner, the Coram man, makes a vicious living disposing of the unwanted children and illegitimate offspring of distraught young women, rich and poor. Meshak is Otis's oppressed, simpleminded son, who finally discovers an infant he considers special enough to risk saving out of the hundreds who have succumbed to his father's brutality. The infant's father is Alexander Ashbrook, a brilliant young aristocrat disinherited by his family for his devotion to a forbidden career, who is astonishingly unaware that he even has a son, much less that he has abandoned him.Around this trio and a host of other characters swirls Jamila Gavin's carefully orchestrated plot, in this disturbing, ultimately uplifting novel about sons and fathers, abuse and abandonment, treachery and devotion.
language: English
title: Coram Boy
titlecomplete: Coram Boy
genres: Historical, Family, 18th Century, Novels, Young Adult, Childrens, Teen, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adventure
ratings_count: 2210
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Whitbread Award
category: Children's Book of the Year
publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)