The Girls with No Names

INSTANT BESTSELLER, THE GIRLS WITH NO NAMES

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Enter the Gilded Age of New York City in the 1910s,
when suffragettes marched in the street,
unions fought for better work conditions—and girls were confined
to the House of Mercy for daring to break the rules.

PROLOGUE

I lay with my cheek pressed to the floor, the cement cool against my spent rage. I’d screamed. I’d bitten and scratched. Now I was paying for it, but I didn’t care. I’d do it again.

Rolling onto my back, I held my hand in front of my face, but only black stared back at me. They’d left me in complete darkness. My palm throbbed where a splinter of wood had pierced it, a glorious wound of rebellion. A wash of cold air drifted across my face and I shot upright, certain it was the ghost of one of the forgotten girls. Fear pricked the soles of my feet, turning into pins and needles nicking their way up my calves. How long would they leave me here? Would they starve me, forget about me until I began to rot and stink? I imagined Sister Gertrude dumping my wasted body into a grave next to other nameless girls. My family would never know what happened.

Praise for The Girls with No Names:

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“The Girls With No Names concludes in crescendo so fever-pitched that the last page seems to come too soon. Nevertheless, Burdick has spun a cautionary tale of struggle and survival, love and family — and above all, the strength of the heart, no matter how broken."

CHICAGO TRIBUNE BOOK REVIEW
"The first person narratives place us into the minds of each woman, exposing her fears and hopes, and the strength needed to live through another day."

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Told from the alternating points of view of Effie; her mother, Jeanne; and Mable, the narrative combines lush prose with a quick and riveting plot. Readers will be intensely moved by this historical."

KIRKUS REVIEW
"A spellbinding thriller for fans of Gilded Age fiction!"

BOOKLIST
"Burdick's carefully researched narrative shines a light on the untold stories of countless real women, and fans of Joanne Goodman's The Home for Unwanted Girls will be consumed by the fast-paced plot and well characterized, sympathetic girls at the novel's heart."

BOOKBROWSE - EDITORS' CHOICE
"Well-placed twists, heavy emotional beats, and an ever-quickening pace lend the book the gripping feel of a page-turner. The same is also true of Burdick's prose. There's a beauty to her writing, and a distinct lack of gratuitousness that brings much needed reverence to the heavy subject matter without ever sacrificing the novel's immense readability.”

HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY - EDITORS' CHOICE
"Burdick’s tale of survival, courage and coming of age in early 20th-century New York is a must read. Burdick has done a masterful job of researching the time and place: about the Romani people, about Inwood, and about the House of Mercy, which actually existed."

Jillian Cantor, USA Today bestselling author of The Lost Letter and In Another Time
“Filled with true historical details about life inside a work house for wayward girls in the 1910s, The Girls with No Names is a beautifully written, haunting novel. Burdick gorgeously portrays womanhood and coming-of-age set against the backdrop of the real House of Mercy, but above all, she weaves a stunning story of sisters, friendship, secrets, and ultimately survival. I fell in love with the courageous Effie and Mabel and will not soon forget their stories.”

Whitney Scharer, author of The Age of Light
“I'm shocked I'd never heard of The House of Mercy, the asylum for fallen women at the center of Serena Burdick's beautiful novel. Burdick expertly weaves together the stories of women affected by the asylum, telling a mesmerizing tale of strength, subterfuge, and the unbreakable bond between sisters.”

Synopsis

Not far from Luella and Effie Tildon's large family mansion in Inwood looms the House of Mercy, a workhouse for wayward girls. The sisters grow up under its shadow with the understanding that even as wealthy young women, their freedoms come with limits. But when the sisters accidentally discover a shocking secret about their father, Luella, the brazen older sister, becomes emboldened to do as she pleases.

But her rebellion comes with consequences, and one morning Luella is mysteriously gone. Effie suspects her father has made good on his threat to send Luella to the House of Mercy and hatches a plan to get herself committed to save her sister. But she made a miscalculation, and with no one to believe her story, Effie's escape from the House of Mercy seems impossible-unless she can trust an enigmatic girl named Mable. As their fates entwine, Mable and Effie must rely on each other and their tenuous friendship to survive.

The Home for Unwanted Girls meets The Dollhouse in this atmospheric heartwarming story that explores not only the historical House of Mercy, but the lives-and secrets-of the girls who stayed there.

FOREIGN EDITIONS

SPAIN

PORTUGAL

ROMANIA

LITHUANIA

RUSSIA