The Other Emma

Winner 2025 Fall PenCraft Award, Fiction - Historical GenreIn 1880, Rose Litkin, a nine-year-old orphan from the tenements of the Lower East Side, is adopted by Lucien Boyesten, a widowed banker seeking a companion for his spoiled ten-year-old daughter, Emma. Rose is whisked away to Boston—to a sister who resents and torments her—and struggles to find her place in a family where secrets abound. Eight years later, impoverished and fleeing the disgrace of Lucien’s fraudulent business practices and tragic death, Rose and Emma board a train bound for New York to live with Lucien’s estranged sister, Frances. But a raging blizzard strands their train in the path of a runaway railway coach, and Emma perishes in the collision. Alone and frightened, Rose makes a desperate decision… Rose is warmly welcomed into Frances’s home as “Emma” and quickly becomes a part of her aunt’s extended family. But the happiness that has always eluded her is still out of reach—clouded by the unbearable weight of her deception and the fear of losing everyone she holds dear. Set against the glitter and greed of the Gilded Age and rich in historic detail, The Other Emma chronicles Rose’s journey from the despair of the tenements to the mansions of Fifth Avenue. The novel is both tragic and sweet—a rags-to-riches tale and a testament to the enduring power of family and forgiveness. Read more