Helen Plum Library

"More than two decades ago, Ashley Baxter Blake made her most grievous mistake in Paris. Now, a forgotten voice brings new information about that terrible time, causing Ashley to see that experience in a new light. Can she finally lay down yesterday's pain and move on? In Paris, Alice Michel is having dinner with her son Gabe and his new friend, Jessie Taylor, an Indiana girl who is studying abroad for the semester. Alice's life is so good now, totally...

"It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. Already a bestseller in France and certain to be read worldwide for generations to come, Small Things...

"Best friends Unity and Ellen are in serious ruts. High school teacher Ellen, whose son's dream of going out of state for college is arousing financial anxiety, hasn't dated since she became pregnant on the night of her junior prom. Unity, a successful handyman, is grieving after her soldier husband was killed three years ago. Each woman goads the other to venture out of her restrictive comfort zone, daring the other to take on a list of challenges,...

Read her letter. Remember her story...Gripping. Mesmerizing. Haunting. Heart-breaking. Once you've heard her story, you will never forget The Girl in the Letter.Perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Rachel Hore and Kathryn Hughes, this page-turning, moving novel of separation and long-buried secrets will stay with you for ever.In the winter of 1956 pregnant young Ivy is sent in disgrace to St. Margaret's, a home for unmarried mothers in the south of England,...

New York Times Bestseller
The heartbreaking true story of an Irishwoman and the secret she kept for 50 years
When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a “fallen woman.” Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him, like thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later, Philomena decided to find him.
Meanwhile,...

In turn-of-the-20th century Texas, the Berachah Home for the Redemption and Protection of Erring Girls is a beacon of hope for young women consigned to the streets by birth, circumstance, or personal tragedy. Built in 1903 on the dusty outskirts of Arlington, the progressive home bucks public opinion by offering faith, training, and rehabilitation to prostitutes, addicts, unwed mothers, and "ruined" girls without forcibly separating mothers from children....

"In 1913, on a summer's day at Half Moon Lake, Louisiana, four-year-old Sonny Davenport walks into the woods and never returns. The boy's mysterious disappearance from the family's lake house makes front-page news in their home town of Opelousas. John Henry and Mary Davenport are wealthy and influential, and will do anything to find their son. For two years, the Davenports search across the South, offer increasingly large rewards and struggle not...

"Toronto, 1939. Released after being incarcerated in a woman's reformatory for being pregnant and unmarried, Olivia Rosetti's family is unwilling to forgive her. She ends up homeless. Well-to-do widow Ruth Bennington hires Olivia to help with a maternity home for troubled women, and for years Olivia focuses herself on the home. Greek widower Darius Reed is determined to protect his daughter from the prejudice that killed his wife. When his employer...

Alternates between two stories--contemporarily, seventeen-year-old Jacob visits a daunting Amsterdam at the request of his English grandmother--and historically, nineteen-year-old Geertrui relates her experience of British soldiers's attempts to liberate Holland from its German occupation

Judi Dench stars in the story of Philomena Lee, mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock and given up for adoption. Nearly 50 years later, Philomena meets Martin Sixsmith, a former BBC reporter looking for his next big story. Together, they embark on a journey to locate her long lost son. As the pieces of the puzzle come together, the unlikely travel companions form a comic and heartwarming friendship. Based on the 2009 investigative book by Martin...