Coram Boy Jamila Gavin
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Table of Contents
Overview
1.
About the Author
2.
Setting
3.
Themes and Characters
4.
Literary Qualities
5.
Social Sensitivity
6.
Topics for Discussion
7.
Ideas for Reports and Papers
8.
Related Titles / Adaptations
9.
For Further Reference
10.
Copyright
11.
Overview
Winner of the 2001 Whitbread Award, Coram Boy relates the intertwining stories of Meshak Gardiner and
Alexander Ashbrook, two young men of different abilities and backgrounds who nonetheless find their fate
inextricably linked. Meshak, the mentally handicapped son of Otis Gardiner, helps his father dispose of
unwanted children; generally infants whose mothers think that Mr. Gardiner will transport them to Coram
Hospital, a newly−created facility to care for abandoned children. Able to convince the distraught mothers
that their newborns will be well−cared for in exchange for a small fee, Mr. Gardiner later hands the infants
over to Meshak, who then buries the children in the woods. Years of burying infants and selling older ones
into slavery have made Mr. Gardiner rich, but one day he is accused of blackmailing the wealthy mothers of
these children. Everyone believes that he was hanged for his crimes and that his son, Meshak, quietly...
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