She calls him Theo and now must find a way to protect him from the Germans. After coming across a boxcar piled high with Jewish babies she is compelled to rescue one and run away. She got pregnant by a Nazi soldier, got kicked out of her home, had a baby that was taken from her and was trying to make a living by working in the train station. At sixteen, Noa has already lived a lifetime.

This is a story of two lost souls attempting to survive the War. But as the facade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their friendship is enough to save one another-or if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything. At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond. Noa finds refuge with a German circus, but she must learn the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep… When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. A powerful novel of friendship set in a traveling circus during World War II, The Orphan’s Tale introduces two extraordinary women and their harrowing stories of sacrifice and survival.

The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff