The Foundling

The story is set in 1927 at the (fictional) Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age, a public institution that removes "unfit" women from society during their childbearing years to prevent them from birthing similarly "unfit" children. (Leary was inspired by her grandmother, who worked at such an institution for a time.) Our narrator is 18-year-old Mary Engle, who takes a job at Nettleton and quickly grows to idolize her boss, a physician, suffragist, community pillar, and unapologetic advocate of eugenics. Engle believes in Nettleton's mission, until she encounters a childhood friend who Mary knows to be bright and kind, and who claims she was wrongly institutionalized simply because her husband wanted to be rid of her. This realization ultimately prompts a crisis of conscience for Mary, but how can she question her powerful boss and the institution she's built? Stirring, timely, and highly listenable, as narrated by Laura Benanti.