Elen Marie Wiseman’s novel The Orphan Collector may be set in the 1918 pandemic but it feels relevant and timely. You can’t read it without comparing and contrasting the situation then with our current situation. Not only the flu pandemic but also the portrayals of the attitudes toward people different from ourselves. The writing is descriptive and enjoyable but details of the story are disturbing. Wiseman captures the determination of Nurse Wallace to clean up her city from the immigrants she feels have invaded her home. She also captures the desperation of Pia as she searches for her brothers and struggles to survive.