Angelina's Children

This is the story of a matriarch and her tribe, ostracized by society and exiled to the outskirts of the city. Esther, a young librarian from the town, comes to the camp to introduce the children to books and stories. She gradually gains their confidence and accompanies them, as observer and participant, through an eventful and tragic year. Alice Ferney's distinctive style involves the reader in the family's disasters, its comic moments and its battles against an uncomprehending, hostile world; in the love lives of the five boys, the bravery of the children, and, eventually, in Angelina's final gesture of defiance.