Review by Booklist Review
In this follow-up to The Home For Unwanted Girls (2018), Goodman continues the story of Elodie Phénix, a Duplessis Orphan forced into horrific conditions when Quebec converted its orphanages into mental institutions during the 1950s. In 1992, now in her forties, Elodie has reunited with her birth family and joins the cause to fight for justice for thousands of orphans who were abused and neglected. Readers also meet Véronique, daughter of an infamous Quebec separatist. Véronique's life has been defined by a father who spent her childhood in jail for kidnapping and murder. She now embraces her father's cause for separatism and leads a life of protesting and crime, determined to be free of conventions. The two stories intertwine when Véronique falls in love with Elodie's brother, and they become close friends despite their differences. Both women must reconcile a destructive past in order find their true selves in the future. In this captivating story layered with love, suspense, grief, and redemption, Goodman once again creates intriguing characters that will immediately draw readers in.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Canadian writer Goodman (The Home for Unwanted Girls) draws on the history of Quebec separatism and the thousands of children known as the Duplessis orphans, who were wrongly declared mentally ill in the 1940s and '50s as part of a political corruption scheme, in this emotionally charged novel. In 1992, 20-something separatist Veronique Fortin, whose father served 12 years for a murder he committed in 1970 as part of the cause, meets journalist James Phenix. James and Veronique fall in love, but their opposing political views--he's in favor of Canadian unity--hamper the relationship. Veronique befriends James's older sister, Elodie, who was sent to an orphanage in the 1950s after her unwed mother gave her up, and faced abused after Quebec's government converted her orphanage to a mental institution. Though Elodie was reunited with her parents when she was 24, she bears emotional scars from her ordeal and is part of a group of Duplessis orphans seeking justice. When James and Veronique's relationship falters, Veronique's bond with Elodie remains strong even as Elodie continues her quest to expose the province's corrupt history. Goodman brings the horrors and complexities of recent Canadian history to life with vivid, realistic characters. Readers will be spellbound. Agent: Beverley Slopen, Beverley Slopen Literary Agency. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In early 1990s Quebec, Véronique Fortin holds hard to the radical separatism of her father, convicted of murdering a prominent politician in 1970. Yet she falls for journalist James Phénix, who opposes a national split. From the author of The Home for Unwanted Girls; with a 200,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Goodman explores the lingering trauma of Canada's mid-20th-century Duplessis orphan scandal, in which children in Quebec orphanages were declared mentally ill so the province could collect more money from the Canadian government, against the 1990s backdrop of the Quebecois struggle for independence in this sequel to The Home for Unwanted Girls (2018). In the previous novel, after getting pregnant at 15, Maggie was forced to give up her baby to an orphanage run by the Catholic Church, and when she later came looking for the child, she was told her daughter was dead. It took more than 10 years for her to finally track down Elodie, whose childhood was a nightmare of abuse and neglect at the hands of the nuns and doctors. Now, nearly 20 years after Elodie was reunited with her family, she is grateful every day. At the same time, she feels like there is, and always will be, a hole in her life forged by the terrible treatment she suffered as a child in the orphanages. James, her younger brother, is fiercely mourning their father's death; one night, after some heavy drinking, he makes a pass at Véronique Fortin, daughter of an infamous Quebecois separatist imprisoned for murdering a government official in the 1970s. James and Véronique quickly fall in love. Véronique has always struggled with her father's legacy. As a young woman, she finds herself drawn to danger, earning money by smuggling illegal cigarettes and selling stolen CDs. And she's a staunch separatist while James' sympathies lie with Canadian unity. As a referendum draws near to determine Quebec's future, their relationship will be sorely tested. While James and Véronique's story unfolds in the foreground, Elodie and her fellow Duplessis orphans--the ones who survived--begin to fight for legal reparations from the church and government. Goodman explores two major events in recent Canadian history and how each of these expose deep wounds in the country and its people. The characters, complex and flawed, love and fight so fiercely that it's hard not to be drawn into their passionate orbits and to feel, even slightly, a glimmer of hope as they refuse to give up on the ideal of happiness. Resonant and relevant at a time when so much of the world seems irretrievably rent by the past and politics. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
