The Children's Train

Written with the heart of Orphan Train and Before We Were Yours, this devastating story of love, family, hope, and survival set in post-World War II Italy is based on historical events. It tells the story of destitute children from the south who are moved to live with families in the north to survive the severe winters and deprivation.

Despite the fall of Mussolini and the fascists, the war left much of southern Italy in ruins. Like other impoverished people in his neighborhood, seven-year-old Amerigo makes ends meet by working odd jobs and using his cunning. He lives in Naples with his mother Antonietta. However, one day Amerigo finds out that he would be spending the winter with a family in the north, where he will be safe, have warm clothes, and food to eat, instead being in the city's debris-filled streets.

Amerigo will travel across the entire peninsula to a new life with thousands of other children from the South. We witness the rebirth of a nation emerging from the ashes of war via his inquisitive and naive gaze. After realizing how much he has changed and how much the future holds for him, Amerigo will have to make the painful decision to leave his mother behind and join his adoptive family.

Amerigo's journey is a poignant tale of remembrance, enduring relationships, artistic endeavors, introspection, and a lofty analysis of what it means to be a family. In the end, Amerigo learns that sometimes in order to discover our destiny, we have to give up everything—even the love of our mother.