Philomena meets Orphan Train in this suspenseful, provocative novel filled with love, secrets, and deceitâ??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 civilityâ??much like Maggie Hughesâ?? parents. Maggieâ??s English-speaking father has ambitions for his daughter that donâ??t include marriage to the poor French boy on the next farm over. But Maggieâ??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 â??back on trackâ??.

Elodie is raised in Quebecâ??s impoverished orphanage system. Itâ??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 nunsâ?? 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.

 

 

 

 

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