The dark legacy of Magdalene's laundries hidden in an ancient letter.
A letter that journalist Samantha finds in her grandmother's house opens a Pandora's box of secrets and lies and touches her own family more than she ever expected.
In the winter of 1956, the family sends the underage pregnant Ivy to St Margaret's Home, a refuge for unwed mothers in the south of England run by the nuns, to give birth. Her daughter is given up for adoption immediately after birth. But Ivy will never leave Home.
Sixty years later, journalist Sam stumbles across a bundle of letters in which Ivy asks her lover to help her escape from St Margaret's. As Sam gradually pieces together Ivy's tragic story, terrible secrets from St Margaret's past come to light. What happened to Ivy, her daughter and the hundreds of other children born here? What connects the many mysterious sudden deaths in the area? And why do those who worked at the Home have a vested interest in the truth never seeing the light of day?
Sam uncovers the terrible web of lies that surround St Margaret's Home, and in the course of his investigation, he takes a surprising look deep into his own family history. Suddenly she is confronted with an uncomfortable truth about herself.
Emily Gunnis, as a born storyteller, builds a story whose incredible plot based on historical fact, as well as its briskly paced action, will be especially appreciated by readers of Kate Morton's novels.
The story refers to the problematic history of the so-called. Magdalene Laundries, ecclesiastical shelters for fallen women, established from the mid-19th century in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Gradually, however, unwed mothers or abused and troubled girls were also brought there - often involuntarily and at the request of their own families. Some spent a year here, others remained imprisoned for the rest of their lives. The last Magdalene Laundry closed in 1996.
