Free An Affair With My Mother: A Story Of Adoption, Secrecy And Love Ebooks To Download

                
              
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An Affair With My Mother: A Story Of Adoption, Secrecy And Love Ebooks To Download
'Incredibly moving' --Anne Enright, winner of the Man Booker Prize An Affair with My Mother by Caitriona Palmer: a moving and gripping story of love, denial and a daughter's quest for the truth. Caitriona Palmer had a happy childhood in Dublin, raised by loving adoptive parents. But when she was in her late twenties, she realized that she had a strong need to know the woman who had given birth to her. She was able to locate her birth mother, Sarah, and they developed a strong attachment. But Sarah set one painful condition to this joyous new relationship: she wished to keep it - to keep Caitriona - secret from her family, from her friends, from everyone. Who was Sarah, and why did she want to preserve a decades-old secret? An Affair with My Mother tells the story of Caitriona's quest to answer these questions, and of the intense, furtive 'affair' she and her mother conducted in carefully chosen locations around Dublin. By turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, An Affair with My Mother is a searing portrait of the social and familial forces that left Sarah - and so many other unwed Irish mothers of her generation - frightened, traumatized and bereft. It is also a beautifully written account of a remarkable relationship. 'Caitriona Palmer has called out the false shame of her origins, with a kind of anguished courage that is incredibly moving. An Affair With My Mother is a forensic account of how it feels to be - in the interests of Catholic "respectability" - excluded from the facts of your own life. In its commitment to family love, to joy and truth, it is a gift.' Anne Enright, winner of the Man Booker Prize
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Penguin Ireland (April 26, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1844883574
ISBN-13: 978-1844883578
Product Dimensions:  6 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
Average Customer Review:  4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #631,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)   #186 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Irish   #18220 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs
My grandmother, raised by her Irish aunt after the death of both of my great-grandparents in the States, told me she often felt like an adopted daughter growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Reading Caitriona Palmer's story provides some of the context that explains how "Nana" felt growing up without parents in her family home. But Caitriona Palmer's story goes deeper than the feelings of an adopted daughter. I started reading the moment I got the book and finished a day later because Caitriona's story offers a glimpse into the Ireland of the 70s that formed perspectives of many of my work colleagues. An Affair with My Mother is compelling because it is such an authentic personal story wrapped inside the changing mores of Ireland.
Having Irish Catholic grandparents and a mother who was raised by them this book hit home in so many ways. More than that, this is a very human story with a triumphant ending. Extremely well written, and so much so, that I could not put it down. Caitriona has weaved her life's history and leaves you with a huge box of kleenex used up and tears still streaming, even after you closed the book. You have inspired me Caitriona and you have given such an incredible gift to birth mothers, adopted parents and those who find themselves desperately seeking to reconnect their tree to their roots. BRAVO to your adopted parents. Their love and unselfishness cannot be applauded enough! "Sarah" was finally rewarded after so much heartache and sacrifice to live freely and peaceably because you lived and loved. I HIGHLY recommend anything this author has penned.
This vividly recounted memoir opened my eyes and my heart to a chapter of Irish history and the human experience that I had known little about before. Palmer probes the emotional turmoil of adoption, investigating the pain she and her biological mother and the wider circle of family members endured. She skillfully inhabits both worlds -- the adoptee and the journalist. The result is a page-turning memoir, at times heartbreaking, tear-spilling and laugh-out-loud delightful. Beautifully written, too. I highly recommend it.
At times it seemed like a self-absorbed autobiography. Stay with the narrative. This book is a heart wrenching story of how a persistent young woman finds herself and exhibits compassion for her parents
What an amazing story and so beautifully written. This book is a page turner and will make you gasp and cry -- simultaneously inspiring and heart wrenching. Sometimes in life with a book, you have the opportunity to visit another reality and experience it as if it were your own. This is one of those opportunities. I can't wait for the movie!!
Awesome. I heard Caitriona on Diane Rehm, NPR. Ordered and read in a few days. I am 100 % Irish. Such an amazing story. Rules in Ireland were so outlandish. I appreciated the fact that her adopted parents were so supportive and also her husband. Her struggle since age 6, was draining. So glad her half/siblings accepted her. An amazing story. I could so relate, as I have a granddaughter who is adopted. Her parents told her from very early on.
Such an amazing piece of writing. Having been in her shoes as well, facing the sadness of being someone's secret is often unbearable. SHe told her story without judgment and with great love for a difficult situation. This book is a stepping stone for those facing the same experience. Beautifully written memoir. A must read for anyone with two families, or those who know someone who has two families and to better understnad their feeling.
Although the beginning of the story is interesting, it's not what I wanted to read about. Once you get past that and more into her adoption story it's a wonderfully written detailed account of what an unmarried pregnant Irish girl went through- and the child they gave up for adoption.
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