The House Children, Heidi Daniele
The House Children, Heidi Daniele
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The House Children
A Novel

Author: Heidi Daniele

Narrator: Lauren Reilly

Unabridged: 6 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/12/2021

Synopsis

In 1937, Mary Margaret Joyce is born in the Tuam Home for unwed mothers. After spending her early years in an uncaring foster home, she is sentenced by a judge to an industrial school, where she is given the name Peg, and assigned the number 27. Amid one hundred other unwanted girls, Peg quickly learns the rigid routine of prayer, work, and silence under the watchful eye of Sister Constance. Her only respite is an annual summer holiday with a kind family in Galway.At the tender age of thirteen, Peg accidentally learns the identity of her birthmother. Peg struggles with feelings of anger and abandonment, while her mother grapples with the shame of having borne a child out of wedlock. The tension between them mounts as Peg, now becoming a young adult, begins to make plans for her future beyond Ireland.Based on actual events, The House Children is a compelling story of familial love, shameful secrets, and life inside Ireland’s infamous industrial schools.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Suzanne

Mary Margaret Joyce was born at the Tuam Home in Ireland. This institution was one of the few options for unwed mothers during the 1930s. Abandoned by her mother, she spends time in foster care until moving to an industrial boarding school at age five. There she was renamed Peg because too many chil......more

Goodreads review by Shirin

Ireland, 1937, Mary Margaret Joyce was born and abandoned in the Tuam Home for unwed mothers. This story is kind of his diary. Mary's memory starts after an uncaring foster home in an industrial school, the House Children, where she is given the name Peg, and assigned the number 27. This was a very h......more

Goodreads review by Heather

I had the honor of meeting the author and receiving an early reader copy of her debut historical fiction novel. The House Children follows a young orphan named Mary Margaret Joyce from early childhood to age eighteen. When she is five, Mary is assigned to live in an industrial girl and renamed Peg (......more

Goodreads review by Cara

Wow what a great book! I've read non fiction books like this before yet even though this is a fiction book it is still great! Definitely would read more of this author. If you like historical books with a take on the times when having a child out of wedlock meant they were illegitimate then this is fo......more

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