Loading
Book Information
The Home for Unwanted Girls
Written by Joanna Goodman
Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
Book Actions
Start ListeningDescription
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 fifteen, 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 seventeen, 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.
Book Actions
Start ListeningBook Information
The Home for Unwanted Girls
Written by Joanna Goodman
Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
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 fifteen, 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 seventeen, 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.
About the author
JG![]()
Reviews
Very captivating and kept me wanting more. Hope there is a sequel!
Rating: 4
Wow I wasn’t expecting this to be so good! I read this in 2 days. Such a moving story of perseverance
Rating: 5
Great book. Heart wrenching and shows secrets are never really secret.
Rating: 4
It's a nice enough read but predictable if you pay attention.
Rating: 3
I couldn’t stop listening! A heartbreakingly good story. I highly recommend this audiobook. Also the narrator was fabulous.
Rating: 5Awesome story, beautifully written. Loved learning about the French province and its history too.
Rating: 5Good read. interesting and heart wrenching in many areas. enjoyed every moment of it
Rating: 5I was intrigued by the story from the start and recommend the book.
Rating: 5
Eye opening and well crafted. The tension kept me going right to the end and left me basking in the resolution. Wow. This book highlights a very dark stain in the history of my country, Canada.
Rating: 4
Loved it very much. My first book to try on Scribd.
Rating: 5
Such a moving book. I seriously enjoyed listening to this & the audio is incredible. I really put myself in their lives and felt it. I definitely cried a couple of times. The way they described everything and went through their lives was written well, I was on the edge of my seat with everything that I was happening. I couldn't put it down.
The ending was good, being who I am though I wanted a little more to the story to see how else the characters would go on living. So good.
Rating: 5The ending was good, being who I am though I wanted a little more to the story to see how else the characters would go on living. So good.
Narration was disappointing. The Quebec French accent was atrocious! ?
Rating: 3Fantastic fantastic fantastic book! I am really at a loss for words! Very well written. Well developed character stories. Great context and historical background. Top 5 books I have read this year
Rating: 5
I really love this book but it was hard to listen to. I thought it was well done but I wish they would have talked a little bit more about the relationship at the end
Rating: 5
I appreciated the story, and getting to know history through a story like this. When you start to relate to characters and also start to "see" the times through their eyes it opens up for understanding and empathy. Glad to read/listen to such a tale with a happy ending, there are too many that did not end well. The writing was good and the narration calm but still lively.
Rating: 4
Interesting, but it became a bit too melodramatic when Gabrielle got so angry and left Maggie. His reaction was too extreme. The book didn’t need that twist. Then, it seemed like a romance novel. The best thing was the narrator who did the French Canadian accent well.
Rating: 3
Good book. Took way to long for the then to get back together
Rating: 5This book is amazing! At 384 pages, it is not what I would call a "fast" read, but I could not put it down. Thanks to some awful weather, I found myself sitting at one of my daughter's events for a good 8 hours, and I read this book that ENTIRE time. I can't recall the last book that I could have read for 8 hours straight, in a crowded high school cafeteria.We meet Maggie as a 15-year old girl who adores her father. Her father is English and hates the French. Of course, Maggie also loves her French neighbor, Gabriel. She finds herself pregnant in a Catholic family where that is NOT ok. Her parents send her to live with her aunt and uncle until she has the baby. They also forced her to never speak to Gabriel again, as well as to give up her baby. Maggie is heartbroken but doesn't feel like she has any other options. She will be disowned if she goes against her parent's wishes.The story takes place in Canada during the 1950s. A few years after having her child, the powers that be discover they can get more federal funding if they convert the orphanages into insane asylums. Maggie's daughter is caught up in this corruption.The story follows Maggie as she tries to go on with her life without her daughter or her true love. We also follow her daughter as she is passed from one awful situation to another. Of course, she does not know that her mother has never forgotten her and would give anything to get her back.I found myself reading faster and faster as the book grew near the end because I just had to know how it would all end — the themes of love and forgiveness as so strong and beautiful in this book. I am so glad our book club selected this story!
Rating: 5Quick read. Hard to put down. Harder to believe it was based on truth. So sad this existed in my lifetime! Really liked the characters also- enough development that you felt you knew them.
Rating: 4
Disappointing. No plot. Kept waiting for something exciting to happen.
Rating: 1
Excellent, couldn't stop listening. Listening to her next book immediately
Rating: 5Home for unwanted girlsThe history of Quebec has some dark secrets, among them the Maurice Duplessis regime which partnered with the Catholic Church to keep its citizens ignorant, uneducated and compliant. This story is a fictionalized account of the life of Elodie an out of wedlock baby and her 16 year old mother Maggie Hughes. The year is 1950 and the family makes the scandal disappear. Elodie starts off well enough in an orphanage run by nuns until the Duplessis government realizes that it is more profitable to get federal funds for mental hospitals. So, at 4 years of age, she is transferred with others to a mental hospital, no education, no kindness.The Hughes family lives near Cowansville where the father runs a reasonably profitable seed and garden centre. He is married to a bitter, unhappy French Canadian woman who rules the roost.Oddly enough, dad doesn’t hold French Canadians in high regard and does not want his daughter to have anything to do with them.Maggie’s relationship with a neighbour Gabriel Phenix is complicated and leads to her pregnancy. She eventually moves on, marries a man she doesn’t love but continues to search for her ElodieThe Elodie and Maggie narratives Intertwine over two decades as Quebec society evolves and advances.
Rating: 4This was a book that I waited for at the library and the wait was worth it. This is a fictional story based on the life of the author’s mother. It is about the Duplessis Orphans. In 1950, Maggie Hughes is the daughter of an English father and French Canadian mother. Her father wants to raise his children English as he feels the French Canadians are poorer, lower class and do not have as good a future as the English. When Maggie falls in love with the French boy on the next farm over, Gabriel, her parents send her off to live with her Aunt and Uncle. It is not until after she arrives there, that she realizes she is pregnant. Being forced to give her baby girl up for adoption, she eventually leaves home for Montreal and meets Roland whom she marries. Gabriel also moves to Montreal and marries Annie. Elodie, their baby, ends up in an orphanage and eventually a Mental Hospital as the province gets more money from the federal government for psychiatric and mental patients than they do for orphans.
The story is told by both Maggie and Elodie. Reading about the terrible treatment of the orphans falsely admitted to the hospitals is terrible. The way some of the nuns treated them made my heart break. They were born out of wedlock so were treated as sinners and below human standards. Some died under suspicious circumstances and were beaten. Both Maggie’s story and Elodie’s story are emotional. To think that these things really happened in the 1950s and 1960s is hard to believe. This is definitely a dark period in Canadian History. If you enjoy historical fiction, especially based on true stories, then read this book. If you are a Canadian, you need to read this book. Make sure you have a box of Kleenex nearby.
Rating: 5The story is told by both Maggie and Elodie. Reading about the terrible treatment of the orphans falsely admitted to the hospitals is terrible. The way some of the nuns treated them made my heart break. They were born out of wedlock so were treated as sinners and below human standards. Some died under suspicious circumstances and were beaten. Both Maggie’s story and Elodie’s story are emotional. To think that these things really happened in the 1950s and 1960s is hard to believe. This is definitely a dark period in Canadian History. If you enjoy historical fiction, especially based on true stories, then read this book. If you are a Canadian, you need to read this book. Make sure you have a box of Kleenex nearby.
This is another novel in which the author has learned of some little known tragic historical events, decided to write a novel about them, and the result is underwhelming. The story of Canadian orphans designated as mentally ill and treated as such is tragic and interesting, unfortunately the author has written a dull account of this period that has little emotional pull or character depth. I never really felt anything for any of the characters and prefer an author that does more show than tell. I wanted to enjoy this but sadly did not.
Rating: 3What I story! I learned so much from this book. Another tale of woe about politics and the catholic church. A 15 year old mother is forced to give her child up for adoption in the early fifties in rural quebec. She never quite forgets her daughter and tries to find her when she gets older. The two main characters of the book are the mother and the daughter. We hear how these two navigate life looking for each other. This is a true story using fictitious names. Recommended.
Rating: 5I was intrigued by the idea of this book, and was fascinated by the orphanage turned mental institution information, which I am guessing really happened. Other than that, this book was kind of typical. Forbidden romance, giving up a baby, trying to find baby, romance along the way. A decent novel, but not the most original.
Rating: 3The story of Maggie; falling in love with Gabriel at fifteen and getting pregnant. Her parents force her to give up her baby, Elodie, and grows up in an orphanage. A sad story, but. Good one.
Rating: 4I wanted to love this book because the writing was so lovely and the plot so heartbreaking, but I just couldn't make myself like the characters enough. I pitied Elodie, but ultimately I just didn't like her. And it's hard to read a story about characters you don't like, no matter how great the writing is.
Rating: 4It took an unusually long time for me to finish this book. Reading about detailed and specific child abuse made me want to abandon the book altogether at times. Eventually, I made it to the end and was left with an overwhelming sense of melancholy. Hope is probably the only thing that kept me reading. Hope for a better future for Elodie, hope for reconciliation with her birth family, and hope for justice against the nuns who abused the children under their care.
Rating: 2Maggie is a unsophisticated 15 year old who gets pregnant. The times were very different and she had to give up her baby,a girl named Eodie up for adoption. The child goes to an orphanage and is cared for in an ok way until she is about 7. At that time theorphanages in 1950's Quebec are turned into mental asylums for financial gain. Much hardship ensues for Eodie. This is yet anther tragic story ofwoman and children being exploited for on the surface righteous reasons but really for financial gain.Maggie and Elodie spend many years trying to be united.I did not really warm up to the characters in this book.
Rating: 3