Halifax writer Genevieve Graham’s latest book, The Forgotten Home Child, is about a young girl caught in a scheme to rid England’s streets of destitute children, and the lengths she will go to find her way home.
It is based on the true story of the almost 130,000 British Home Children, between 1869 and 1948, who were taken from orphanages, streets and homes and shipped to Canada.
Writer and radio producer Tara Henley described the book in her review in the Toronto Star as “another page-turner” from the best-selling author of Come From Away and At the Mountain’s Edge.
Ms. Henley wrote, “It imagines the life of one of these children, the now-97-year-old Winnifred Ellis, and probes the depths of her secret youth.”
At ninety-seven years old, Winnifred Ellis knows she doesn’t have much time left, and it is almost a relief to realize that once she is gone, the truth about her shameful past will die with her. But when her great-grandson Jamie, the spitting image of her dear late husband, asks about his family tree, Winnifred can’t lie any longer, even if it means breaking a promise she made so long ago.
Lori Oschefski, CEO of the British Home Children Advocacy and Research Association, wrote in a review of the book, “The absence of any sugar coating makes this story come to life and brings a level of reality that is often lacking – an emotional journey well worth reading.”
The book is available in Canada at bookstores and online for $15, and at Costco for $14. (The regular price for the trade paperback edition is $25.) It’s also available in the US from Amazon.com. As often is the case, you can “look inside” at parts of the book on Amazon.ca.
