Goodman, Joanna, 1969-

The home for unwanted girls : a novel / Joanna Goodman. - First edition. - 364 pages ; 23 cm.

In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility--much like Maggie Hughes' parents. Maggie's English-speaking father has ambitions for his daughter that don't include marriage to the poor French boy the next farm over. But Maggie's heart is captured by Gabriel Ph©♭nix. When she becomes pregnant at fifteen, her parents send the baby Elodie to an orphanage where she receives horrible treatment. Seventeen years later, 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.

ISBN: 0062684221 9780062684226

Subjects--Topical Terms:
Teenage pregnancy--Fiction.
Guilt--Fiction.
Mothers and daughters--Fiction.
Abandoned children--Fiction.
Abused children--Fiction.
Orphanages--Canada--20th century--Fiction.

Subjects--Geographic Terms:
Canada--English-French relations--Fiction.

Index Terms--Genre/Form:
Domestic fiction.
Historical fiction.

Dewey Class. No.: 813/.6