Books like Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

The novel opens on a 1931 farmhouse porch in Philadelphia, where a warning sign—"2 Children for Sale"—gives the story its grim focus. Reporter Ellis Reed’s photos, taken in a time of breadlines and bank runs, would seem small but carry the weight of a family’s dark past. Ellis’s very personal discovery draws him deeper into the lives of the children and the mother who once stood beside the sign. His photo, left uncaptured for publication, inadvertently becomes the key to his career breakthrough. Meanwhile, veteran reporter Lillian Palmer, haunted by the suffering of children seen as unwanted, must confront how far she will go to undo the fractured lives she has witnessed. The book, based on a real newspaper photograph that shocked the nation, explores the bonds of motherhood, the pull of redemption, and the unexpected choices that lead us back home.

First publish date: 2018