I love the reality/unreality of this book. The relationship between a motherless girl and a woman teacher she met on a train unfold with brutal truth--the teacher never calls on the little girl as she promised. The girl's trust in the world is twice-broken: once by the death of her mother, and then by the betrayal of a stranger's promise. But the layer of metafiction--the teacher telling this very story to her students, inviting them to consider what might make the best ending--calls everything into question again. What a delicious pathway into teaching story!