Nobody’s Girl

Hector Malot published En Famille in 1893, and it became the companion piece to his better known Sans Famille. Perrine reaches Paris with a dying mother, a donkey and a cart, and very little else. Once she is alone she walks north to Maraucourt, where her father’s family owns the mills the whole town depends on, and takes work at the factory under a borrowed name rather than announce herself to the grandfather who disowned her father. What follows is really a story about competence, about a girl who can build her own shelter, make her own shoes, and make herself necessary to a blind old man with no idea who she is. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.