Hesse's A Time of Angels (1995) relates to Out of the Dust in a number of ways, and contains similar themes.

Fourteen year old Hannah Gold and her two sisters are separated from their Jewish parents in 1918 at the end of World War I, and move in with their aunt, Tanta Rose and her friend Vashti, in a tenement apartment in Boston's West End. Hannah sells newspapers to help with the finances, but despite her good intentions, Vashti resents having children underfoot. When a deadly influenza strikes the family and kills Tanta Rose, Hannah escapes to Vermont, where she makes a slow recovery, cared for by an old farmer named Klaus Gerhart, whose German heritage has made him suspect in the town. In the process, she learns how to deal with death, prejudice, forgiveness, and healing. As with Out of the Dust, each chapter is dated, beginning...