Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets
Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets by Clair Wills, published by Penguin Publishing Group on January 30, 2025, is a personal memoir that delves into the complexities of family history and relationships. In this 208-page book, Wills recounts her discovery of a cousin she never knew existed, born in a Mother and Baby home in 1950s Ireland. This revelation prompts her to explore the broader implications of familial abandonment and societal silence surrounding unmarried mothers and their children.
Readers will find a narrative that spans from the 1890s to the 1980s, traversing locations such as West Cork, rural Suffolk, and Massachusetts. Wills embarks on a quest through archives and personal stories, revealing the hidden truths and emotional weight carried by families. The book addresses themes of grief, loss, and the often-unspoken violence embedded in family secrets, presenting a nuanced exploration of how history shapes personal identities.
Official synopsis Publisher
How far would you go for the missing?
When Clair Wills was in her twenties, she discovered she had a cousin she had never met. Born in a Mother and Baby home in 1950s Ireland, Mary grew up in an institution not far from the farm where Clair spent happy childhood summers. Yet she was never told of her existence.
How could a whole family – a whole country – abandon unmarried mothers and their children, erasing them from history?
To discover the missing pieces of her family’s story, Clair searched across archives and nations, in a journey that would take her from the 1890s to the 1980s, from West Cork to rural Suffolk and Massachusetts, from absent fathers to the grief of a lost child.
There are some experiences that do not want to be remembered. What began as an effort to piece together the facts became an act of decoding the most unreliable of evidence – stories, secrets, silences. The result is a moving, exquisitely told story of the secrets families keep, and the violence carried out in their name.
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