Town Farm Boy (Tales of Pondicherry)

Something you should know about me right off. My Ma is dead. Some say it’s on account of me. I hope that ain’t true because killing your own ma is a pretty bad thing to do. Specially on account of I was just being born and all. Pastor Frye tells me it want my fault on account of the ‘wages of sin being death.’ All I know is I ain’t got a Ma. Nor a Pa neither. I don’t reckon I killed him. I reckon he just up and disappeared because I killed my Ma. Seems a feller wouldn’t take kindly to a baby for doing what I did. I don’t know.

I guess folks don’t know much what to do with a boy that hasn’t got a Ma or a Pa. Pastor said some old soldier feller put some cash money aside for “the worthy and industrious poor” way back in the olden days. The old feller fought at Bunker Hill and I sure would like to hear him tell some stories about them days. Anyway, I’m not “worthy” on account of killing my Ma so I guess my lot is to be “industrious”. Mr. Sanborn says that means I have to work extra hard doing chores and the like around the farm so’s I earn my keep and I’m not a burden on the town.


In 1880 Pondicherry, Maine, life offered few choices for a boy like Edwin Littlefield. Born a bastard at the local Town Farm, his fate seemed sealed from the start. Shunned by society and burdened by a secret past he doesn’t yet know, Edwin’s days are a relentless cycle of chores, his future a grim echo of those who came before him.

But when a shocking revelation about his mother’s death unearths a dark conspiracy at the heart of their quiet village, Edwin is thrust into a fight for the truth. Suddenly, the “burden on the town” becomes its unlikely champion, forced to confront the powerful men whose dark secrets were tied to his very existence.

Can a Town Farm Boy, alone against a ruthless world, uncover the truth and finally find a place to call home?