Why read The Home for Unwanted Girls?

Book cover of The Home for Unwanted Girls

Book description

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…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Home for Unwanted Girls as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Vered Hazanchuk

Author

I think I’ll be recommending this book to people until the end of time. It’s just so, so good.

What I love most about it is it brings a forgotten part of history to life: a time when orphanages in 1950s Quebec misdiagnosed children as mentally ill to qualify for the better funding allocated to psychiatric hospitals. An obscure moment in history, generations of family scandals and secrets, and a forbidden love story? Yes, please.

From Vered's list on The best novels to make you wish you joined that book club.