Summary

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Winner of the 2001 Whitbread Award, Coram Boy tells the intertwined tales of Meshak Gardiner and Alexander Ashbrook, two young men from vastly different backgrounds and abilities whose destinies become tightly connected. Meshak, who is mentally disabled, is the son of Otis Gardiner. Otis deceives mothers into believing he will take their unwanted babies to Coram Hospital, a new institution for abandoned children. In reality, Otis charges a fee for this service but then hands the infants over to Meshak, who buries them in the woods. Years of burying infants and selling older children into slavery have made Otis wealthy. However, his fortune takes a turn when he is accused of blackmailing the affluent mothers of these children. It is widely believed that he was hanged for his crimes and that Meshak quietly disappeared. It is only years later that the true fate of the Gardiners and the abandoned children comes to light.

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