THE HOME OF UNWANTED GIRLS BY JOANNA GOODMAN

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BOOK DESCRIPTION

Philomena meets The Orphan Train in this suspenseful, provocative novel filled with love, secrets, and deceit - the story of a young unwed mother who is forcibly separated from her daughter at birth and the lengths to which they go to find each other.

In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility - much like Maggie Hughes' parents. Maggie's English-speaking father has ambitions for his daughter that don't include marriage to the poor French boy on the next farm over. But Maggie's heart is captured by Gabriel Phénix. When she becomes pregnant at 15, her parents force her to give baby Elodie up for adoption and get her life "back on track".

Elodie is raised in Quebec's impoverished orphanage system. It's a precarious enough existence that takes a tragic turn when Elodie, along with thousands of other orphans in Quebec, is declared mentally ill as the result of a new law that provides more funding to psychiatric hospitals than to orphanages. Bright and determined, Elodie withstands abysmal treatment at the nuns' hands, finally earning her freedom at 17, when she is thrust into an alien, often unnerving world.

Maggie, married to a businessman eager to start a family, cannot forget the daughter she was forced to abandon, and a chance reconnection with Gabriel spurs a wrenching choice. As time passes, the stories of Maggie and Elodie intertwine but never touch, until Maggie realizes she must take what she wants from life and go in search of her long-lost daughter, finally reclaiming the truth that has been denied them both.

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Release date 

APRIL 17, 2018

MY REVIEW

Beautifully written story about a 15 year old pregnant girl forced to give up her baby after it is born, due to the fact that she, Maggie, is not married. Maggie mourns the loss of her baby girl and spends years trying to find her, not knowing that her child, Elodie, is being raised by nuns, first in an orphanage setting and then in a mental hospital. Oh, the inhumanity of it all. I detested the Catholic nuns to no end and felt the agony of these small and helpless children in their unhappy lives. How I wished to be able to gather them all up in my arms and take them to a place of love and safety. Yes, the story does have a happy ending, but it takes twenty-some years to get there, and I am sure that it will stay in your thoughts for a long time.