Summer reads: Charities in fiction

publication date: Aug 29, 2017
 | 
author/source: Toronto Reference Library Book a Librarian Service

From Edwardian England to Toronto, these novels all share a charity theme. Find your perfect read for the last weekend of summer.

Daddy-Long-Legs

Jean Webster

When Jerusha Abbott, an eighteen-year-old girl living in an orphan asylum, was told that a mysterious millionaire had agreed to pay for her education, it was like a dream come true. For the first time in her life, she had someone she could pretend was "family."
But everything was not perfect, for he chose to remain anonymous and asked that she only write him concerning her progress in school. Who was this mysterious gentleman and would Jerusha ever meet him? 

 

Once we were brothers

Ronald H. Balson

Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, the Butcher of Zamosc.

 

 

The ragged trousered philanthropists

Robert Tressell

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists tells the story of a group of working men who are joined one day by Owen, a journeyman-prophet with a vision of a just society. Owen's spirited attacks on the greed and dishonesty of the capitalist system rouse his fellow men from their political quietism. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is both a masterpiece of wit and political passion and one of the most authentic novels of English working class life ever written

 

 

What the enemy thinks

Gail Picco

 Beck Carnell is a driven CEO whose upbringing in the fishing village of Herring Neck, Newfoundland both haunts and comforts her as she battles her demons and her rivals in a world where misery translates to fundraising opportunity.

The marketing press calls Beck's Toronto firm, Social Good, “an edgy, dynamic shop catering to charities and interest groups.” Together with a team comprised of talented political organizers, social media sages, and newcomers seeking success,Beck attempts to carve her way through both personal and professional challenges in the murky waters of modern-day faith, hope, and charity. Now only time will tell if she can simultaneously save the world, her firm and her sanity as she copes with heartbreak, wades through the stickiness of childhood memories and fights for what she sees as justice.

In this dark comedy, a shrewd charity marketer on a fast-paced journey to achieve professional triumph is forced to walk a fine line between her past and present, ultimately discovering the true meaning of unconditional love.

List courtesy of the Book a Librarian Service of the Toronto Reference Library

Image by Prasanna Kumar via Unsplash


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