Coming January 21, 2025 from bold type books
preorder from Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or other book retailers
The orphan story has been mythologized. Step one: While a child is still too young to form distinct memories of their parents, they die in an untimely fashion. Step two: Orphan acquires caretakers who amplify the world’s cruelty. Step three: Orphan escapes and goes on an adventure, encountering the world’s vast possibilities.
The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow upends this story. Alongside powerful critiques of popular orphan narratives, from Annie to The Boxcar Children to Party of Five, journalist Kristen Martin explores the real history of orphanhood in the United States from the 1800s to the present. Martin reveals the mission of religious indoctrination that drove the first orphanages, the orphan trains that took poor children out West, and the inherent racism and classism that still underlie the United States’ approach to child welfare.
Through a combination of in-depth archival research, memoir (Martin herself lost both her parents as a child), and cultural analysis, The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow is a compellingly argued, compassionate book that forces us to reconsider autonomy, family, and community. Martin delivers a searing indictment of America’s consistent inability to care for those who need it most.
praise for The Sun Won’t Come Out tomorrow
“Provocative and captivating, this book challenges our assumptions and illuminates the harsh realities of orphanhood in America.”—Gabrielle Glaser, author of American Baby
“A deeply compassionate, rigorously researched, and passionately argued exploration of the gap between the myths and realities of American orphanhood. This searing history left me outraged, enlightened, and full of deepened conviction that we need to keep peeling away our collective American mythologies in order to reckon with our hardest truths.”—Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters
“With immense courage and capability, Martin exposes this hidden American history, and in doing so, she compels us to see what is true, not the comforting, nonsensical stories we tell ourselves about what it means to be an orphan.”—Christine Kenneally, author of Ghosts of the Orphanage
“Martin has produced an indictment long overdue—and indispensable.”—Brenda Wineapple, author of Keeping the Faith
“Martin’s searing and essential dive into the truth and fiction of American orphanhood makes clear the racism and classism that undergird our treatment of vulnerable children and their families. Martin shows the reality is far from our comfortable myths, and that we can’t solve this long-standing crisis if we don’t first accurately name it.”—Roxanna Asgarian, author of We Were Once a Family
“Powerful…a damning assessment of America as a society built on the exploitation of children.”—Publishers Weekly review