The Orphan Keeper

By Camron Wright

Kidnapped and adopted, a boy's quest to find his true family spans continents and decades.

4.4/5 Goodreads · 371 ratings

288 pages

$17.99Save 6%

In stock. Also at Amazon or Bookshop.

Bookroo's summary

Kidnapped from his Indian village, young Chellamuthu is thrust into a new life in America, renamed Taj Khyber Rowland. As he grows, the question of his origins haunts him. Years later, an encounter with an Indian family reignites his quest to find his birth family. Torn between two worlds, Taj must navigate the complexities of identity and belonging. Can he reconnect with his past, or is it too late? This gripping journey explores the enduring bonds of family and the search for self amidst cultural dislocation.

From the publisher

Seven-year-old Chellamuthu’s life–and his destiny–is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children. His family is desperate to find him, and Chellamuthu anxiously tells the Indian orphanage he is not an orphan, that he has a mother who loves him. But he is told not to worry as he will soon be adopted by a loving family in America. Chellamuthu is suddenly surrounded by a foreign land and a foreign language. He can’t tell people that he already has a family and becomes consumed by a single, impossible question: How do I get home? But after more than a decade, home becomes a much more complicated idea as the Indian boy eventually sheds his past and receives a new name: Taj Khyber Rowland. It isn’t until Taj meets an Indian family who helps him rediscover his culture and family history that he begins to discover the truth he has all but forgotten. Taj is determined to return to India and begin the quest to find his birth family. But is it too late? Is it possible that his birth mother is still looking for him? And which family does he belong to now? The Orphan Keeper is a deeply moving and gripping journey about discovering one’s self and the unbreakable family bonds that connect us forever.

At a glance