The Home for Unwanted Girls: The heart-wrenching, gripping story of a mother-daughter bond that could not be broken – inspired by true events

By Joanna Goodman

Philomena meets 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9780062684240

Joanna Goodman

Joanna Goodman is the author of the bestselling novels The Forgotten Daughter, The Home for Unwanted Girls,and The Finishing School. Originally from Montreal, she now lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.

Book preview

Prologue

1950

He who plants a seed plants life. This is something Maggie’s father always says, quoting from his prized Yearbooks of Agriculture 1940–48. He doesn’t just dispense seeds; he is devoted to them the way a preacher is devoted to God. He’s known in their town as the Seed Man—a vainglorious title, but it has a noble ring. Maggie loves being the Seed Man’s daughter. It gives her an air of prestige—at least it did, once. Much like the province in which she lives, where the French and English are perpetually vying for the upper hand, her family also has two very distinct sides. Maggie understood early on that a stake had to be planted, an allegiance made. She aligned with her father, and he with her.

When she was very young, he used to read to her from his impressive collection of horticulture books. Her favorite was The Gardener’s Bug Book. There was a poem on the first page, which she knew by heart. The rose-bug on the rose is evil; so are those who see the rose-bug, not the rose. While other children were lulled to sleep with fairy tales, her bedtime stories were about seeds and gardening—Johnny Appleseed carrying his seeds from the cider presses of Pennsylvania, walking hundreds of miles tending his orchards, sharing the wealth of his apples with the settlers and the Indians; or Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk who planted peas in his monastery garden and studied the traits of each generation, and whose records, her father claimed, were the foundation of our current knowledge of genetics and heredity. Such triumphs, her father pointed out, always begin with a single seed.

How do you make the seeds you sell? she once asked him.

He looked at her as though he was offended, and replied, I don’t make the seeds, Maggie. The flowers do.

It’s their potential for beauty he admires most: the graceful stem that has yet to grow, the shape of the leaf and color of the flower, the abundance of the fruit. Looking at the plainest seed in the palm of his hand, he understands the miracle that will come to pass as it fulfills its purpose.

He also appreciates the predictability of seeds. The corn seed, for instance, always produces a mature plant in ninety days. Her father likes being able to rely on such things, although occasionally his plants are imperfect or deformed and it troubles him deeply, keeps him up pacing through the night, as though the seed itself has betrayed him.

Always a source of comfort to her as a child, his stories mean even more to her now as she tries to quiet herself to sleep in this strange bed, strange body. At sixteen, Maggie has a seed of her own growing inside her and it’s almost fully ripened. The baby moves and kicks with gusto, pressing its feet and elbows against the walls of her belly, reminding her of her terrible transgression, the shame it’s caused and the way it’s upheaved her comfortable life.

Outside, the sky has gone dark. She came up for an afternoon nap, but it must be suppertime by now and she’s still wide awake. She lays a hand on her belly and instantly feels the unnerving acrobatics beneath her palm. At least she isn’t alone in this place anymore.

Her aunt calls out for supper and Maggie stretches. She reluctantly turns on the lamp, eases herself off the bed, and goes downstairs to face them.

A platter of roast beef is set down on the table for Sunday dinner, alongside dishes of carrots, potatoes, peas. A bottle of wine is opened for the grown-ups. Fresh baked bread, soft butter, salt, and pepper. Her parents are here visiting. Maggie is happy to see her father. She misses him, even though he’s different with her. She can tell he’s making an effort, but there’s a shadow in his blue eyes now whenever he looks at her, which isn’t often enough. His attempt at forgiveness lacks conviction. He can’t quite overcome his sense of betrayal.

Maggie watches her uncle ceremoniously sharpen his knife and carve thin pink slices of beef that bleed onto the white porcelain. Her sisters blather and giggle together, excluding her. Someone asks if there’s horseradish. And then Maggie feels a gush of warm liquid between her legs, just as her mother is saying, "Tabarnac, I forgot the horseradish."

Maggie’s dress is soaked. Her cheeks grow hot with embarrassment. She wants to slink away from the table and run to the washroom, but the rush of liquid doesn’t let up. I peed, she blurts, standing. The liquid is still pouring from between her legs, surprisingly odorless, puddling on her aunt’s wood floor.

She turns to her mother in a panic. Her sisters are all staring at her splotched dress with bewildered expressions. At last, Aunt Deda cries out, Her water broke!

Nicole, her youngest sister, begins to wail. Maman and Deda spring into action. The men slide away from the table, dumbstruck and meek. They wait awkwardly for instructions from the women.

She’s in labor, Maman says calmly.

Now? Maggie’s father says, glancing over at the mighty roast beef sitting freshly carved in the center of the long pine table. She’s not due for another month.

These things can’t be conveniently arranged, Maman snaps. You’d better call Dr. Cullen. Tell him we’ll meet him at the hospital.

What’s happening? Maggie asks. No one has prepared her for this moment.

Deda rushes over and throws her pillowy arm over Maggie’s shoulder. "It’s fine, cocotte, she soothes. The baby’s early, that’s all."

No one ever says your baby. It’s always "the baby. Even Maggie thinks of it as the baby." And yet in spite of all the havoc it’s caused, she’s not quite ready to let it go. She’s come to think of it as an ally or a talisman, though not so much as her future child. She’s still too young for that, can’t really connect to the concept of motherhood. She doesn’t have to anyway. The baby coming tonight really only means one thing to her: she’ll be free from imprisonment at her aunt and uncle’s farm. She can finally go home.

She feels a contraction and lets out a roar of pain.

It’s coming, her mother says. It’s coming.

Part I

Controlling Weeds

1948–1950

The growth of perennial weeds, particularly of a fleshy kind, can be discouraged by allowing them to grow happily till just about to flower and then harvesting them and laying them back again thickly on the surface of the roots . . .

—Old Wives’ Lore for Gardeners

Chapter 1

1948

Admit it, Seed Man, you voted for Duplessis!

A boom of laughter drifts up to the attic where Maggie is weighing and counting seeds. Premier Duplessis has just been reelected and there’s a buzz in the store. She dumps a handful of seeds on the scale, straining to hear what’s being said downstairs. Come on, Seed Man! one of the farmers teases. It’s nothing to be ashamed of!

Maggie abandons counting and crouches at the top of the stairwell to eavesdrop. She’s been working for her father on weekends since she turned twelve two years ago, weighing and packaging seeds in small paper envelopes. It can be a tedious task, especially because the larger seeds have to be counted individually, but she doesn’t mind. She loves being at her father’s store; it’s her favorite place in the world. She plans to work downstairs on the sales floor one day, and then take over when he retires.

His store is called Superior Seeds/Semences Supérieures, and it’s about halfway between Cowansville and Dunham, the small town where they live about fifty-five miles southeast of Montreal. The name on the sign outside the store is written in French and English because her father says that’s the way things work in Quebec if you want to prosper in business. You can’t exclude anyone.

Maggie creeps down a few more stairs to get closer to the action. The store is damp and smells of fertilizer, a scent she adores. Arriving on Saturday mornings, she always inhales deeply and sometimes digs her hands inside the cool dirt where new seeds are germinating in small clay pots, just so the earthy smell will stay on her fingers for the rest of the day. To Maggie, this is where happiness is found.

The store stocks basic things like fertilizers and insecticides, but Maggie’s father prides himself on an impressive selection of rare seeds that can’t be found elsewhere in the area. Vain enough to think of himself as a dispenser of life, he is redeemed by his sheer commitment to his work. He manages to straddle a fine line between ridicule and respect, and the farmers come to him not just for their seeds but also for his expertise in all matters rural and political. On a day like today, his store is as much a gathering place as it is a business. The back wall is lined with row upon row of tiny square drawers, all of them filled with seeds. There are giant barrels of corn, wheat, barley, oats, and tobacco for the farmers. On the floor, there are sacks of sheep manure, Fertosan, bonemeal, RA-PID-GRO. Beside those there is a wooden display rack for the trees and shrubs, as well as gardening tools, lawn sprinklers, and hoses. The shelves are crowded with powder packs and spray cans of DDT, Nico-fume, larvicide, malathion dust, Slug-Em. There is nothing a farmer or a gardener can’t find.

The day I vote Union Nationale is the day I close down this store, her father declares, full of bravado, the upturned ends of his moustache seeming to emphasize his point.

Her father has a magnetic way about him. He’s as handsome as a movie star, with his blue eyes and Hollywood moustache. His hair is thinning—always has been, ever since his twenties—but baldness gives him a certain dignified air, somehow enhances his sophistication in her eyes. He wears linen suits during the summer and tweed jackets with fedoras in winter, and he smokes House of Lords cigars that stink up the house with that wonderful fatherly smell. Even his name, Wellington Hughes, sounds impressive.

Wellington thrusts his chin out in his stubborn, prideful way and says, The man is a gangster and a dictator. He speaks in fluent French, being a great proponent of bilingualism as a business tool.

Maggie’s father is a very influential man in the farming community, so it’s expected he will support any politician who values, protects, and promotes agriculture the way Duplessis does. But he is also a proud Anglophone. He despises Duplessis and is quite open about it. He believes Duplessis is the one who’s kept the French uneducated and living in the dark ages. He endures his customers’ political views only because they choose to do their business at his shop and he respects their patronage and loyalty. Yet when the name Maurice Duplessis is dropped into the conversation, the color rises up in his usually pale cheeks and his voice goes up an octave or two.

We know you voted for him, Hughes, Jacques Blais taunts. He pronounces it Yooz. You need his farm credits. When we prosper, you prosper, heh?

My business would do fine without that egomaniac in power, Maggie’s father states emphatically.

Takes one to know one, Bruno Roy mutters, and all the men break out laughing.

You Québécois have no loyalty to this country, her father says, uttering the word loyalty with reverence, as though it were the noblest trait a man could possess.

"Maudit Anglais," Blais jokes, just as the bell jangles over the front door.

The men turn to look and immediately fall silent as Clémentine Phénix enters the store. An unmistakable tension quickly replaces the jovial mood of moments earlier.

I need some DDT, she says, filling the store with her husky voice and controversial presence. The way she says I need is not so much a request as a challenge.

Maggie’s father goes over to where he keeps the pesticides. He picks up a can of DDT and wordlessly hands it to her. Something passes between them—a cryptic look, a communication—but then he quickly turns and walks away. Maybe it’s nothing more than the old territorial grudge.

The Phénix family lives in a small shack on the cornfield that borders Maggie’s property. This is very much a point of contention with her father. He feels the value of his own land is considerably diminished by its proximity to their impoverished shack. The Phénix kids own the cornfield, but it’s all they’ve got. They earn their living from sweet corn and strawberries in the summer. In the winter, Clémentine’s brother, Gabriel, works in a factory in Montreal. It’s just the three siblings living together now—Clémentine, Gabriel, and Angèle—and Clémentine’s four-year-old daughter, Georgette, from a marriage that ended in divorce. The rest of the family—their parents and two other sisters—were killed in a car accident several years ago.

Clémentine follows Wellington to the front counter, ignoring the snickers from the other customers, which she must be used to by now. Her divorce has made her a pariah in their small Catholic town, where divorce is not only a sin but also illegal. She had to go all the way to Ottawa to get it done, an unforgivable offense in the eyes of the self-righteous townsfolk like Maggie’s mother.

I need two cans, Clémentine says, folding her solid brown arms across her chest.

She’s suntanned and freckled, wears no makeup, and lets her long golden braid swing out behind her like a skipping rope. Maggie thinks she’s beautiful, even stripped of all the usual feminine trappings. She somehow manages to be feminine and tomboyish at the same time, her disarmingly pretty face not the least bit undermined by a hard expression, thick, muscular arms, or the unflattering potato-sack dungarees that conceal even the possibility of a figure.

There’s something awe-inspiring about her, Maggie observes, a quiet defiance in how she handles herself with the men. She has none of the usual adornments that give women legitimacy—a husband, children, money—and yet she seems to do whatever needs to be done to manage her family and their livelihood.

My crop is infested with rootworms, Clémentine explains. If she’s uncomfortable with everyone’s eyes on her, she doesn’t let on.

Wellington crosses the store again and returns with another can of DDT, looking quite agitated. All of a sudden, the front door swings open and Gabriel Phénix steps inside. He swaggers over to Clémentine as all the farmers turn their attention to him.

Maggie hasn’t seen Gabriel since last summer and her breath catches when he enters. He left for Montreal as a boy last fall—she remembers him running through the field on spindly legs, his shoulders slight, his face round and cherubic—but he’s returned a man. He must be sixteen now. His blond hair is combed into a swirling lick, his gray eyes glint like razor blades, and he’s got the same pronounced cheekbones and full lips as his sister. He’s still thin enough that Maggie can count his ribs through his white cotton T-shirt, but his arms, which have muscle now and a fine thick shape, give his body a man’s breadth and substance. Watching him from her spot near the stairs, she feels something strange inside her body, like the swoosh feeling in her belly when she dives off the high rocks into Selby Lake. Whatever it is about him, she can’t seem to make her eyes look anywhere else.

You okay? he asks his sister. Clémentine nods and puts her hand on his chest, a signal for him to hang back and wait for her. He does, with clenched fists and a serious, insolent expression on his face, waiting to pounce in her defense if called upon.

Maggie’s father puts the two cans of DDT into a brown paper bag and rings it up on the cash register.

I need credit, Clémentine says.

More snickers.

Credit? her father echoes with contempt. Wellington Hughes does not extend credit. It’s his policy. It is the policy, and his policies are like commandments. Thou shalt not extend credit.

Our season starts in a couple of weeks, she explains. I’ll be able to pay you then.

Maggie wipes a film of sweat from above her lip. She realizes for the first time how hard life must be for the Phénix kids. The truth is she’s never really considered it before, not even when she was friends with their little sister, Angèle. She’s heard her parents talk about them—the divorce and the dead father’s drinking—but she never paid much attention. Today, though, she finds something about their prideful audacity very compelling.

If I let you take this bag on credit, her father says in his smooth French, everyone in town will start coming to me in the off-season and promising to pay when corn season starts.

Gabriel pushes in front of his sister and unfastens his watch. He drops it on the counter and shoves it toward Maggie’s father. Here, he says. Take my goddamn watch to show we’re good for it. It was my father’s. It’s gold.

Wellington’s upper lip twitches and he thrusts the watch back at Gabriel. This isn’t a pawn shop, he says, scowling.

Gabriel makes no move to take back the watch. After a moment, Maggie’s father suddenly pushes the brown paper bag of DDT across the counter to Clémentine. Here, then, he says. Take it. But don’t come back until you can pay for it.

Thank you, she says, never once lowering her head or her eyes in shame.

Maggie’s father looks disgusted. When Gabriel still makes no move to reclaim his watch, Clémentine grabs it and pulls Gabriel toward the door. On their way out, Gabriel looks directly at Maggie, as though he’s known she’s been here all along. Their eyes lock and her heart accelerates. His expression is defiant, full of hatred. His lips curl into an indolent sneer, and she realizes, with some shock, that the sneer is directed at her.

She notices her father watching her sternly. His warning is understood. Thou shalt not date French boys.

Chapter 2

Maggie has taken to hiding in the Phénix cornfield for two reasons. The first is to avoid having to do her chores. The second is to observe and hopefully get noticed by Gabriel while he tends to his corn.

It’s August and corn season is in full swing. She’s sprawled on the ground between the rows, reading a True Romance magazine, ignoring the ants crawling all over her bare legs and tickling her skin. She’s content here with the sun burning her back and the tall stalks sheltering her from her mother’s nagging. She can hear Maman’s voice all the way from their backyard. Ranting, ranting. Her sister Violet has knocked some clothing off the line and Maman is furious. Poor Violet, but better her than Maggie.

You again?

Maggie drops her magazine and looks up, pretending to be startled. He’s standing above her, shielding his eyes. He’s shirtless, wearing only blue jeans. His skin is brown, as dark as her father’s cigars.

I like reading here, she says.

He crouches down beside her. She holds her breath. A trickle of sweat moves slowly down the slope of his neck.

"Tabarnac, he says, examining an ear of corn. The earworms are feeding on the silks."

Have they penetrated the kernels? she asks, knowing all about insect infestations from her father.

Gabriel shakes the husk of one of the ears. Hopefully it’s loose enough to protect the corn. They should be all right as long as the damage stays on the surface.

Maybe you should have planted earlier, she says, sounding like her father. The condescension, the lecturing tone. She instantly regrets it. Gabriel gives her an annoyed look and stands up.

Stick with your romance magazines, he scoffs. Leave the farming to me.

Why did she have to open her big mouth? Maman always tells her she’s got a big mouth and she’s right.

Gabriel turns his back to Maggie, and her eyes are riveted to the jutting curve of his spine as he moves through the rows of corn, bending methodically to inspect the ears. As she watches him work, admiring him and reflecting with embarrassment on what she’d said, all the other dramas and obsessions in her life fall away like the corn tassels scattered around her.

Maggie!

She hears Violet’s panicked voice before her sister even appears.

Maggie! Violet cries, shoving stalks out of her way. "Maman wants you home now!"

Maggie stretches out like a cat, acting as though she’s not afraid of their mother, even though she’s actually terrified. They all are.

You better hurry or . . .

Or she will beat them with the wooden pig spoon. Or lock them out of the house without supper. Maggie turns back around to give Gabriel one final longing gaze. He catches her looking and she waves, but he doesn’t wave back. Violet observes this, but doesn’t say a word. Let’s go, she says nervously, grabbing Maggie’s hand and jerking her to her feet.

They trudge out of the cornfield just as the sun is beginning to set. We better run, Violet says. And even though Maggie doesn’t like to come off as wimpy as Violet, she knows her sister is right. They have to run.

Their house sits at the end of a long road that’s lined on either side by a dense row of towering pine trees, and they run all the way up the dirt path that rises steeply from the cornfield and winds its way through the woods. When they get to the clearing where their gray stone Victorian sits nobly as the centerpiece of the property, Maggie and Violet are both drenched with sweat and panting like dogs. The screen door slaps shut behind them and there she is, Maman, standing at the stove with the wooden spoon in her hand. "Où t’étais, Maggie?" she asks, her voice soft but menacing. Where were you?

Geraldine is already setting the table, and two-year-old Nicole is on the floor playing with her British Ginny doll. Ever since their older brother, Peter, went to boarding school in Sherbrooke, it’s just a house full of girls.

Violet rushes over to the table to help Geri, getting herself out of the line of fire.

I was outside, Maggie says.

"I know you were outside. Doing what?"

Reading.

Maggie attempts to hide the magazine behind her back, but it’s pointless. Maman snatches it out of her hand and stares at it mockingly. What does this say? she asks.

Her mother can’t read or speak a word of English. She is pure laine French and has never made any effort to absorb even the rudiments of the English language, not for her husband nor for the bilingual community in which she lives.

The Eastern Townships is mostly farm country, containing pockets of both French and English who live in relative harmony—that is, relative to Quebec, where the French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility but don’t mingle the way other more homogeneous communities do. The same could be said about Maggie’s parents, whose union has always been a point of bafflement for Maggie.

Her father earned his diploma in horticulture at eighteen and got his first job at Pinney’s Garden Center in the East End of Montreal. He was the assistant manager when Maggie’s mother showed up one day looking for a plant to pretty up her apartment in the slum of Hochelaga. She was a poor French-Canadian maid who had never stepped foot outside the slums, and he a literate, cultured Anglo, but he fell in love with her the moment he spotted her dark red lips and soft black curls that day at Pinney’s.

Today, French is the official language of their household—a testament to their mother’s stubbornness—but their father won on education. As a result, the children all attend the English Protestant school, making English the official language of their future.

The first time Maggie ever heard English was when she was five, on her first day of school. When she confronted her father about this sudden upheaval in her life—the switch from French nursery to English school—all he said was, You’re English.

Maman’s not, she pointed out.

"But you are, he said. French is the inferior language. It’s imperative that you’re educated in English."

What’s that mean?

It means speaking only French will get you nowhere.

But you speak French.

That’s why I’m successful. You must never forget how to speak French as your second language. It’s a means to an end, Maggie, but it doesn’t make you French. See?

She did not. And when the kids at school started calling her Pepsi and frog, she was even more confused.

Why do they call me a Pepsi? she asked her father one night, sitting on the floor of his cramped office.

The room was once the maid’s quarters, but quickly became his sanctuary—not much larger than a closet, it’s the place where he keeps his seed catalogues, books, homemade radios, tools, notes, and sketches of the garden he will one day plant in the backyard. There’s an old mahogany desk and a typewriter crammed in there, too, and the room always reeks of cigar smoke. He can stay locked inside for hours with his music, his House of Lords, a bottle of wine, and whatever project he happens to be tinkering with at the time. He always keeps it locked because he says a man needs his privacy.

That night, he looked up from the Dale Carnegie book he was reading and removed his bifocals. He reached out and touched Maggie’s knee. His hand was warm and comforting. "Because Pepsi is cheap and sweet and that’s why the French Canadians drink so much of it, and why they have rotten teeth. But you’re not a Pepsi. You’re English, like Daddy."

After that, she learned English quickly, out of sheer survival. Nothing was more important than speaking perfect English—and not just speaking it, but being English. Fitting in at school required a complete transformation—including how she dressed. She traded in the baggy dresses her mother preferred for plaid kilts and crisp white lace collars and penny loafers that her father ordered from the Eaton’s catalogue. She traded in her mother tongue for a new, more elegant language. Eventually, she began to feel English.

Nowadays, out of fear and obligation, they still speak French to their mother, whose presence in the house is mighty and unavoidable. But Maggie’s allegiance is to her English side—her father’s side—because he rarely raises his voice and he is the beacon of reason in an otherwise erratic household.

What does this say? her mother repeats, her voice rising as she points to the cover of Maggie’s magazine.

"‘True Romance,’" Maggie mutters.

Violet snickers.

True romance! her mother scoffs, shoving the magazine into the garbage. Disgusting.

She pretends it’s her and Gabriel, Violet reveals.

Gabriel Phénix? Maman says, with interest.

Violet looks at Maggie with a flicker of guilt, even as she’s answering their mother. That’s why she goes to the cornfield, she tattles. To see him.

Maggie glares at Violet, silently letting her know she’ll pay for this later.

"I never thought you’d be the one to fall for one of us," Maman says, grinning.

What’re you talking about?

Your father will say Gabriel’s not good enough for you because he’s French, her mother responds. "But I was good enough for him. Remember that."

She steps back with a satisfied look on her face and turns back to the stove.

Upstairs in her room, Maggie checks on her indoor garden. She’s been planting seeds in her mother’s old mason jars since she was a toddler. She keeps them in neat rows on the bureau beneath her

Reviews for The Home for Unwanted Girls

[Amisha Klawonn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a good book. Full of characters that draw you in and a story that keeps you turning the pages.

[Natalie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was super interesting! I planned on reading it in a week and read it in a few days. I ended up reading about the true historical events this book was based on.

[Ron · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Heart wrenching .a book you can't put down. But a happy ending.

[lisa5127 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This 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!

[nwieme-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quick 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.

[maggieflo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Home 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.

[carlathelibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This 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.

[janismack · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What 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.

[l4mo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I 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.

[julyso · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The 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.

[gwnfkt12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I 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.

[cwhisenant11 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It 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.

[meeniereads · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Maggie 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.

[rebeccabookreview · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.I requested to review this book because of the description. I hadn't heard anything about this particular historical event before but as horrifying as it is there is some truth to it. The children that lived through this horrendous event are sometimes known as the Duplessis Orphans, as Duplessis was the premier of Quebec at the time these events occurred. Maggie and Elodie's stories are heart-breaking but more than that, there is a string of hope that can be felt and seen throughout the book that uplifts the story. Elodie suffered tremendously but she still hopes for a better future. I loved that the book was told from both Maggie's and Elodie's points of view, this added a lot of important details that the reader would've missed otherwise but also allows us to grow attached to both characters. Both their journeys were amazing and inspiring, and although the story is fictional (but based on true events) I found many of the ideas in the book to be thought-provoking. To imagine these things would have happened to real people is baffling to me, that humanity could be that cruel to children for money incomprehensible. Underneath all the tragedy I found that this was also an important story of love, specifically Maggie's love for Gabriel and also for Elodie. I really very much enjoyed this book and I would highly recommend reading it. It was an engaging and interesting read, and I hope to have a chance to read more by this author in the future.

[sunqueen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a well written poignant story, based on true events that happened in Canada during the late 50’s early 60’s. There are parts of this story regarding the child’s treatment in the orphanage/asylum that were very infuriating and shocking to the reader, but everything wraps up nicely in the end.

[mpmills · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent book set in1950’s Quebec. Maggie is an unwed mother who is forced by her parents to give up her baby girl, Elodie. Elodie is placed in an orphanage run by Catholic nuns. The orphanage is soon reclassified as a mental institutions because the government provided more funds that way. This story is unfortunately based on true events, and the orphans were treated brutally by the nuns. I hope the author exaggerated, but I’m afraid it’s actually what happened. It’s so hard for me to believe anyone could treat children like these girls were treated. The chapters alternate between Maggie and Elodie, both trying to find each other. The Elodie chapters were very hard to read, but I loved the book.

[9cee9 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story based on truth exposes the sadness of historical abuse to institutionalized children of unwed mothers. The profound impact of early separation and harsh treatment that crippled families emotionally was real, heartbreaking, and lasting. Goodman finds hope in changing policies, laws and attitudes that have come about over time to accept and protect the rights of families. Also, she writes with the conviction that human inner strength, given encouragement, is a powerful healing force. A book worth reading.

[shazjhb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book. Can not believe the government sanctioned the plan in the 1960’s. Another reason to turn away from Catholic Church. One of the free books for me to review. Excellent read. Need a follow up

[kremsa-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Home for Unwanted Girls takes place in Quebec in the 1950s. Fifteen year old Maggie is the daughter of a French mother and an English father and when she begins a romance with a French boy Gabriel her parents send her away to live with her aunt and uncle. When Maggie finds herself pregnant her parents decide to keep her at her aunt's and uncle's until the baby is born. The baby girl, Elodie, is taken from her right after the delivery and given to the nuns at an orphanage. What follows is an emotional roller coaster as Maggie looks to find her daughter. Years pass and the story alternates between the point of view of Maggie and Elodie who suffers the cruelty of the nuns when her orphanage is turned into a mental institution as dictated by the government. i must say that reading this book at a time when illegal immigrant children are being separated from their parents when they try to illegally enter the US made the book seem even more real. Elodie's experiences made my heart ache for the detained children. How anybody thinks that keeping children from their parents is for their own good is beyond me. It makes my blood boil to just writing this review. I also was not aware of this dark period of Quebec's history when all orphanages were converted and the children there were labeled as mental patients. How can there be so many cruel and corrupt people and why did it take so long to discover what was really happening at these institutions? If you don't mind the heartbreak, an excellent read!

[lewislibrary · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was both fascinating and horrifying. The author wrote it so well that I felt like I was actually there watching it all unfold. The love between Gabriel and Maggie was palpable. It was heart-wrenching when things ended with Gabriel, and she was forced to give her baby up. It was heartbreaking to read of the cruelty the children suffered at the hands of the nuns. This book is perfect for all of the historical fiction fans.

[morningwalker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This story is set in Quebec from 1948- 1974. It begins with Maggie, the daughter of the English "Seed Man," going against her father's wishes and becoming involved with the neighbor, Gabriel, a poor boy of French decent. Maggie becomes pregnant and is sent to live with an aunt and uncle, to hide the pregnancy and keep her from seeing Gabriel. He doesn't know she is pregnant, or that her parents are putting the child up for adoption. Because the baby is jaundiced and small the adoption doesn't go through and she is placed in an orphanage. This is not the best life for a child, but it is better than what happens next to children in orphanages across Quebec (based on real events in Quebec in the 1950s). New laws provide more money to mental hospitals than to orphanages. This leads to the placement of orphans in mental hospitals alongside mentally ill patients.Elodie, Maggie's daughter, is one of these orphans who is moved to a mental facility and kept there where she is abused and told she is crazy by the nuns who run the hospital. Maggie goes on with her life but never gives up on finding the daughter she lost. She and Gabriel reunite and spend many years searching for Elodie. The story is told alternating between Maggie and Elodie's lives. A very well written story to go with a sad piece of history.

[mindea_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have not the right words to express just how much I loved this book. The subject of this story is such a personal one to me. I am adopted and was given to an orphanage. The way Joanna Goodman describes Elodie's life, her dreams, hopes and fears was so heartbreaking and real to me that I just connected so much with this story. I absolutely loved this book. The writing is beautiful and I think that everyone will see that and love this story. I don't think everyone will connect with it like I did, but that won't diminish the impact of this story when you read it. READ THIS BOOK!

[deanieg_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lost my first review.....anyway...this book started out a little slow but it was worth the read in the long run. Maggie and Gabe were from opposite sides of the cornfield but fell in love and did what often comes naturally to healthy teenagers. They become pregnant when Maggie is 15, but her parents send her away to get her away from Gabe. Maggie is raped by her uncle so is not sure exactly who the father of her baby is. She is forced to give up Elodie, and the rest of the story is about Elodie in the orphanage and then in a mental hospital where so many orphans were put in the 1950's, and Maggie and her life and her eventual search for her baby. Good read, sad story.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 An emotional roller coaster of a journey, a young fifteen year old mother, Maggie forced to give up her newborn daughter. We follow Maggies journey, her life, and eventually her struggle to find and reunite with her daughter. Elodie, in an orphanage, finds harshness, but never outright cruelty, and even kindness from one of the sisters. This will change, when the orphanages are turned into mental institutions, and the unwanted children are now deemed mentally ill. Now her life is one of hardship, outright cruelty, so hard to read what happened to these children and at the hands of sisters who were supposed to show Christian mercy and acceptance. Unconsciousable!Although this takes place in Quebec, similar misjustices were also perpetrated in other countries. So incredibly sad and disheartening. All the things women have gone through in the past, the misjudgment of the churches, the harm they caused. Not just the churches though, the harsh judgement and non caring atmosphere of society in general. This book tore at my heart, but also made me angry. I often wonder if people who can treat the innocents so cruely ever find it hard to live with themselves? I hope so but somehow I doubt it. ARC from Harper publisher.

[mrsmommybooknerd7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First Line~ He who plants a seed plants life. There are not enough words for how great this book was. It was so heartbreaking and wonderful in perfect unison. There were compelling characters and a story that was quite stunning. The fact is that this book moved me to the core, deep to the core. I was breathless at times and was in shambles at other times. Such an originally written gorgeous story.

[alekee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story takes place in rural Canada, near Montreal, and during a different period, the 1950’s. We are shown a family where there isn’t really a lot of love shown, the parents don’t seem to like one another, he is English and she is French, and like the Province they are like oil and water.A young couple get caught up and the result is an unwanted pregnancy, and at that time it was an embarrassment, and the child was put up for adoption, or so they thought.The author shows us a blight on history, the story is historical in nature as this horrible event really did happen. Oh, so very sad, and when you realize it is true it makes it even worse, and we put faces to this tragedy, and the reason this happened? Greed!Heartbreaking page turner, and then the lies, yes, you will wish harm to the people who claim to be people of the church, they are wolves in sheep clothing for sure.Be careful this one will rip you heart, and have the tissues handy.I received this book through Library Thing and the Publisher Harper Paperbacks, and was not required to give a positive review.

[anacskie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love historical fiction and this one is definitely one of my favorite. This book tugged at my heartstrings with every word, every feeling, every chapter. I lost myself in this story, as my emotions were overtaken by the emotions of the character, most especially the young orphan girl Elodie. This is definitely one of those books that I would not forget. I highly recommend this book to my friend. Thanks to Library Things and Harper Collins for a chance to read the ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[nyiper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My first glance at this book pulled me right in. A dark period doesn't begin to describe what happened when Quebec's Duplessis turned orphanages into mental hospitals, including all the orphans in them. What happened is so far beyond tragic. The story of Maggie's search for her daughter as her daughter lives and wonders why her life is so full of abuse is heartbreaking as we go back and forth between Elodie and Maggie in time. And the fact that the churches cooperated? It's almost hard to read which means that Goodman is a terrific writer with her graphic detail. The ending made me wonder how life would be from the ending on into the future for this extended family. Would it be possible to write a sequel to this? I really loved this book but I am horrified at what goes on in this world---it's impossible to keep up with all of the cruelty to human beings that continues to occur.

[jfe16 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Review of Advance Uncorrected ProofFifteen-year-old Maggie Hughes, the daughter of an English father and a French mother living in Quebec, falls in love with Gabriel Phenix. Her parents disapprove; her father believes the poor French boy is not good enough for his daughter. To keep Maggie away from Gabriel, her parents send her to Frelighsburg to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle. Before the summer is over, Maggie is pregnant and she must remain in Frelighsburg until the baby is born. Maggie gives birth to a premature daughter and her family forces her to relinquish the child to a foundling home. Elodie, relatively happy and reasonably well cared for, spends the first seven years of her life at the orphanage. But a decision by Maurice Duplessis, the premier of Quebec, turns all orphanages into mental institutions and thousands of children, including Elodie, find themselves confined in institutions where mental and physical abuse is a common occurrence. As the years pass, Maggie and Elodie remain separated. Is there a way to fix the mistakes and regrets of the past? Do Maggie and Elodie have any chance for a future together?This well-crafted story, based on the true plight of the Duplessis Orphans in Quebec, Canada, is a condemnation of the government and the religious orders put in charge of schools, orphanages, and hospitals in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. Since federal funds for hospitals were significantly greater than the funds for orphanages, Duplessis ordered that all orphanages would become mental hospitals, a decision that led to the false classification of multitudes of orphans as mentally defective children. These facts, carefully woven into the fictional story of Maggie, Gabriel, and Elodie, lace the narrative with the grim reality of the time. Readers will find it difficult to set the book aside but, like many other well-told, based-in-truth narratives, the horror of these events sometimes makes the book extremely difficult to read. Readers should have a box of tissues handy before delving into this heartbreaking story. Highly recommended.I received a free copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Readers program

[pdebolt_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very well-written novel, made all the more riveting since it is based on true events. It takes place in the Canadian province of Quebec in the mid-20th century where there is a long-standing rift between English and French residents. It is also a time when an unwed mother is shamed, as is her family and, most unforgivably, the child.Maggie Hughes, the oldest daughter of an educated English father and a French mother from an impoverished family, falls in love with Gabriel Phenix, and is sent to live with an aunt and uncle to discourage the relationship. There she is raped by the pedophilic uncle at the same time she has sex with Gabriel who has visited her. At the age of 16, Maggie gives birth to a daughter whom Maggie names Elodie after her favorite flower. The paternity of the child is uncertain, and Maggie's mother refuses to believe that she was raped. The baby is immediately put up for adoption. Elodie is not adopted, but placed in an orphanage run by Catholic nuns with the miserable name of The Home for Unwanted Girls. When Elodie is 7 years old, the government decrees that all orphanages become psychiatric hospitals because it is advantageous for government funding. Education for the orphans stops, and they become unpaid care takers for the mentally ill and "retarded" patients. Years go by and Elodie, along with other orphans, is transferred to psychiatric institution where the physical abuse and neglect by the nuns accelerate. What follows is heart breaking; when Elodie attempts to assimilate into a "normal" life at the age of 20 even a refrigerator is a foreign object to her.During these years, Maggie is attempting to find her daughter, but she is thwarted at every turn by sealed documents. When Maggie and Gabriel reconnect as adults, they are united in their resolve to find their daughter. Joanna Goodman has used this fictional situation to cast a light on this very real dark period in Canadian history and the Catholic church, which mirrors the same horrible events in Ireland that led to the unforgettable movie, Philomena. This is an extraordinarily well-written documentation of events that should never be forgotten.