Description
Book Synopsis"A resounding defense of women’s reproductive autonomy. An elegantly written and damning narrative." - Kirkus Reviews
In 1956 the worst thing a teenage girl could do was to become pregnant. Joanna, Prissy, Jessie, and Mary become lifelong friends when they are incarcerated in the Frances Weston Home for Unwedmothers in Knoxville, Tennessee. Together they endure the culture of shame and soul crushing tactics dispensed by the Catholic Nuns who coerce the teenagers into relinquishing their illegitimate babies. The four young womens’ vow of friendship bonds them as they rebuild their lives in the Deep South during the turbulent 1960’s, while the roles of women and single mothers evolve in the decades that follow. When tragedy strikes, they must decide whether to keep their past secrets or discover the fates of the children they were forced to give away.
Trade Review"Unbroken Bonds vividly captures the terrible vulnerability of young white women in the United States in the decades before "reproductive rights" became available to any but the wealthiest of us." -- Rickie Solinger, Author of Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe v. Wade
"While Unbroken Bonds is a novel, the characters might have been your mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, or the girls with whom you went to school. Each of the young women's narratives are carefully crafted, and realistic." Fran Gruss Levin, Author of The Story of Molly and Me , and CUB Board Member
"Dawn shares several sides of the coin, all real and raw glimpses of what first mothers go through... we must be awakened in the truths that separation trauma for the adoptee and first mother lasts a lifetime." Pamela Karanova, Adoptees Connect, Inc.
"Overall, it's a narrative that builds slowly, hovering on a photograph as a missing piece in a puzzle, and coalescing in a resounding defense of women's reproductive autonomy. An elegantly written and damning narrative." Kirkus Review
"A resounding defence of women's reproductive autonomy. An elegantly written and damning narrative." -- Kirkus Reviews
