Book Review: The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright

The Orphan Keeper

by Camron Wright
Published: September 6th 2016
Genres: Historical Fiction
Format: Hardcover (432 pages)
Source: Library

Based on a remarkable true story. Seven-year-old Chellamuthu’s life is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in India, sold to a Christian orphanage, and then adopted by an unsuspecting couple in the United States. It takes months before the boy can speak enough English to tell his...

Based on a remarkable true story. Seven-year-old Chellamuthu’s life is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in India, sold to a Christian orphanage, and then adopted by an unsuspecting couple in the United States. It takes months before the boy can speak enough English to tell his parents that he already has a family back in India. Horrified, they try their best to track down his Indian family, but all avenues lead to dead ends.
Meanwhile, they simply love him, change his name to Taj, enroll him in school, make him part of their family—and his story might have ended there had it not been for the pestering questions in his head: Who am I? Why was I taken? How do I get home?
More than a decade later, Taj meets Priya, a girl from southern India with surprising ties to his past. Is she the key to unveil the secrets of his childhood or is it too late? And if he does make it back to India, how will he find his family with so few clues?
From the best-selling author of The Rent Collector, this is a deeply moving and gripping journey of discovering one’s self and the unbreakable family bonds that connect us forever.

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Since The Orphan Keeper is a fictionalized version of a true story, I think it’s vital to visit the website to see what really happened.  There’s a timeline of events and the original video interviews.  Not as much of this story was made up as I thought it would be.

I could not put this book down.  The story was riveting and I had to know what happened next.  I stayed up until 2 am just to finish it.  Now that I’ve finished it, it’s a story I can’t get out of my head.  It’s not obvious or clear what “should” have happened.  We can justify things that seem right.  When the directors at the orphanage find out the boy has been kidnapped and isn’t really an orphan, one of the directors justifies keeping the boy since he was neglected in India and would have a better life in America.  The two directors have this discussion:

“Don’t stir your colors together too self-righteiously or you’ll end up covered in muddy gray and we’ll both end up in prison.”

“It won’t happen.  I know you.  You’ll simply pay them off.” […]

“That, my friend, is a prison of a different kind.”

-Camron Wright, The Orphan Keeper, pg 107

The director does have a point that the boy would have a better life in America.  Better physically anyway.  But emotionally?  Both his heartbroken family and Chellamuthu suffer intense pain and loss. Problems come when we take away people’s decisions and decide that we know what’s best for others.

The Orphan Keeper is a stunning journey about finding your family and your heritage when it seems hopeless.  There are a billion people in India.  How can he possibly find his family with a few vague memories from his childhood?

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