The Home for Unwanted Girls
by Joanna Goodman
Published by Harper Paperbacks
on April 17, 2018
Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction
Setting: Canada
Length: 384 pages
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Synopsis:
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.
My Thoughts:
This was the #Bookstorians historical fiction book club choice for the months of May & June. I'll admit that I hadn't seen or heard of this one previously and probably wouldn't have given it a try otherwise. I almost didn't read it because the beginning is a little slow going, but I stuck with it and was blown away.
Set in Canada in the 1900s, when it was considered a sin to give birth out of wedlock and illegitimate babies were sold or tossed in orphanages rather than shame their families, our MC, Maggie, works for her father in his 'superior' seed shop and has been told repeatedly to avoid French boys at all costs despite that she is half French herself. So when she falls in love with Gabriel, a poor French neighbor, her parents send her away to live with an Uncle, and Maggie is forced to give up her baby, Elodie, at the young age of fifteen.
Alternating between Maggie and her 'orphaned' daughter's POVs, we get a harrowing look at the absolute cruelty of orphanages-turned-mental hospitals during the reign of Duplessis and a heartbreaking look at a family torn apart.
I hadn't read much Canadian-based historical fiction before this year so the orphanage/mental hospital history was all new (and terrifying) to me but I loved the overall story and its happy ending and definitely recommend it!
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