The Orphan Collector: A Heroic Novel of Survival During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Content Warning: This section discusses racism, anti-immigrant bias, kidnapping, and suicidal ideation.

Pia is the protagonist. At the beginning of the novel, she is 13—the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lange, who immigrated to America from Germany when Pia was three years old. Pia is “small […] with a pinched face and blonde braids” (54). Because Pia shrinks from touch and does not play at recess, she is often teased at school, and Finn is her only friend. Pia’s reluctance to touch others stems from her “sixth sense”: She can sense if a person is sick or injured by touching them and even feels their pain.

Pia is empathetic and responsible, and when her mother dies, she does not hesitate to step in as her baby brothers’ caretaker. When they go missing, recovering them becomes her guiding purpose; she feels shame at her inability to control what happens to her and her family, as well as immense guilt at having left her brothers alone in the apartment. Though she does not articulate it, she believes finding her brothers will redeem her from what she feels was an inexcusable act.

Much of Pia’s growth occurs after she tells Finn and Mrs.