The Baby Train

Stella Shepard will release her latest novel The Baby Train via Nimbus Publishing this month. A book launch event will be held from 2–4 pm on November 10 at Trinity United in Charlottetown, with performances and readings by Julie Pellissier-Lush, and Scott Parsons. All are welcome. 

The Baby Train follows Apple, who was thrust into the foster care system at an early age, moving from house to house on PEI without finding a permanent home until her teenage years, when she is taken in by a couple who never managed to have children themselves. When she falls pregnant, her foster parents are keen to raise the baby while Apple remains in the house—to live as a family. However, that opportunity is torn away from her by members of the Catholic Church, along with social workers and government officials. Their vicious practices take the babies of unwed mothers and give them to wealthy families in exchange for large “donations” to the church. Apple’s beloved baby ends up with a rich couple in the U.S. and is lost to her. The Baby Train traces her life in the aftermath of that loss as she raises subsequent children, forms deep bonds of friendship with other women struggling against society’s rigid norms, and carries an unending love for her firstborn child. The book also follows her baby’s path, watching his affluent yet neglected childhood and adulthood unfold. He never knows that his birth mother still yearns for him and lights birthday candles for him every year.

The shameful legacy of forced and coerced adoption in Eastern Canada is brought to life in this sweeping sequel to Ashes of My Dreams.

The Baby Train is dedicated to unwed mothers. They are the inspiration for this novel. It is available locally at Bookmark and via Amazon.