The Home for Unwanted Girls - Joanna Goodman

So heart breaking you can't believe it's true!

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Big thanks goes out to my good friend Gabi in Canada who recommended this book so highly that I had to hunt it down! I know it is early, but I am predicting that this will be in my top books of the year already! I LOVED it!

In 1950's Quebec the French and the English co-exist in precarious harmony. When at fifteen Maggie falls pregnant by the poor French boy next door her parents force her to give up the baby to protect her family and her future. Her daughter Elodie is raised in the system, but when the law changes and provides more funding to psychiatric hospitals than orphanages, she (along with thousands of Quebecois children) is declared mentally ill and her childhood becomes solely about survival. Meanwhile, trying to move forward in her life Maggie can never forget the baby she lost and the love she left behind.

This is one of those books where you can't believe it is based on true events, it is unfathomable. Periodically I had to take a break from reading to process what I had just read and manage my emotions. *History Lesson* In the 40s and 50s around 20,000 children in Quebec were deliberately wrongly certified as mentally ill, in order to gain additional funding from the Canadian Federal government that ultimately profited the Quebec provincial government and the Catholic Church. These children are referred to as Duplessis' orphans, named after Maurice Duplessis who was the Premier of Quebec during this time. In 2010 it was estimated that around 300-400 of these children, who suffered cruel abuse mentally, physically and sexually in the new mental asylums were still alive, their experiences heavily impacting their ability to function in the outside world.

I am so impressed with Goodman's ability to convincingly break your heart in this book. The real events are obviously harrowing, but she time and time again finds new ways to absolutely destroy you, creating a chain of events that is utterly devastating but still hopeful. In Maggie and Elodie she has created characters who feel completely alone in the world, they suffer and endure so much but still have hope in their hearts and that is beautiful.

I definitely think the novel also has strong feminist undertones. Goodman highlights how religion and societal expectations dictated 'a woman's place', (and were often used against her) during this period, in way that is undeniably meant to provoke anger in the reader. It is impossible to not be disgusted at how the women and children in this book are treated. That being said, she imbues Maggie and Elodie with uncommon aspirations and tenacity, actively combatting the restricted idea of womanhood.

I really can't oversell this book or its author. I enjoyed it so thoroughly, even in the uncomfortable moments and I have already got another of Goodman's books on its way to me as I write this!

H x