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May 25, 2018ownedbydoxies rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is a novel and the characters are imagined, however the actions in it and the historical facts, are based on real events and true happenings. It's the story of a young woman (15 in 1950), who lives in a small Quebec town, is pregnant and is forced by her family to give up her baby to the orphanage run by the Catholic church in order to save her reputation (and theirs). This is a very strong book, featuring the love (and animosity) of family, the mistakes in judgment we can make when we are scared and not brave enough to stand up for ourselves and do what a generous heart would insist upon. It's an indictment regarding the way some members of the Catholic church utilized their positions to wreak havoc and cruelty on the lives of those dependent on them, stories which we hear all too often still. The suffering so many orphans went through are no different from the horrifying abuses suffered by so many Aboriginal children in the residential school systems of the time. It's very difficult to process how members of the Church (nuns) and doctors at the time, could have perpetrated this type of emotional and physical abuse, somehow justifying it to themselves. An excellent book.