New York Times BestsellerThe heartbreaking true story of an Irishwoman and the secret she kept for 50 yearsWhen 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.… years later, Philomena decided to find him.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Philomena’s son was trying to find her. Renamed Michael Hess, he had become a leading lawyer in the first Bush administration, and he struggled to hide secrets that would jeopardize his career in the Republican Party and endanger his quest to find his mother.
A gripping exposé told with novelistic intrigue, Philomena pulls back the curtain on the role of the Catholic Church in forced adoptions and on the love between a mother and son who endured a lifelong separation.
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beautifully written, truthful, heartbreaking and uplifting, all in one book. beautiful.
This was NOT about Philomena. It was about her son.
Historically and tragically accurate, but if you are looking for a ray of hope in this one, you won’t find it. It has more of a political and a sad societal thread than I had anticipated..
Did not like it, very little about their quest to find each other, mostly about the catholic church and the homosexual lifestyle.
This book started out really well and very readable, I liked the way it was written. However, about a quarter the way in I started to change my mind. I realize that when books are adapted to movies certain details are changed, etc but this book focused on Michael Hess and the movie focused on Philomena’s search for him. So I felt the title of the book was very misleading. I kept waiting for the back and forth of both stories that is why I continued to read, that never happened. By the end of the book I found the dialogue cheesy and unsatisfying. It ended up reading like a novel, not a good one either.
This was so well written. I felt like I was right there watching all this happen. Sad but true story.
Loved this book. Great read!
I have not seen the movie but not really excited about the book. While the events at the home for unwed mothers were sad, I felt that more attention could have been paid to the mother and what she was doing with her life. I also thought the book went into too much detail about the homosexuality of the main character.
Maybe *I* came into this book expecting something other than a biography of Philomena and the child who was taken from her. The beginning is heart-wrenching, seemed factual, left me wanting to meet her son and see how their lives grew and intersected, or didn’t, and what happened to Philomena. After a few chapters we follow Anthony/Peter into his life…and don’t meet Philomena until 90% of the book is gone. And then we get stripped down, bare facts, no story, even though Philomena was alive to tell it. The majority of the book is a supposition of Peter’s life. I think his success and accomplishments could have been reported without excessive guessing at his feelings about himself, his homosexuality, his excesses, and his hate for the GOP and all things Republican. Makes it worse that these weren’t *his* words, but the author’s. I feel sorry for his family, and sorry that this is what we remember him by.
Haven’t seen the movie, but I can’t imagine a film of this unless the title was changed so you know what you’re getting.
I was disappointed so much of the book was devoted to his homosexuality with details I found too graphic. There was tons of info on the politics of the development of the conservative a Republican Party which was quite informative, but went on far too long.
so interesting and informative.
Shows a system that was tragic.
This is a hard book, in that it deals with evil frocked by the church. I felt such pain for the mother, who really never had closure, even when she learned what had happened to the son she’d wanted to Keep……the lies told her angered me, the inhumanity towards the mother angered me, and the church’ s position disgusted me. A strong person brought this story to light, and a strong mother told her heart breaking story. I darent say more, I’m too disgusted with the ?Catholic Church.
What terrible things were done in the past to mothers and their babies when there was no marriage. The damage done to both the infants and their birth mothers was the worst thing of it all. Children born out of wedlock in Ireland were sold by the RC church to families from the USA. For me, the book was slow in parts.
This was about a gay man coming to terms with his sexuality. The fact that he had been given up for adoption at birth was a very small part of the story.
A stunning portrayal of young unwed mothers unwittingly thrust into the arms of the Catholic church. The nuns in charge use these woman and their children to enrich the church. It sounds like something in a fictional story, but alas it’s true. This is the account of one such young mother and her long search for the son she gave birth to. The church lied about their part in this treachery time and time again, both to children looking for their mothers and to mothers looking for their children. A reporter finally gets to the truth and exposes the church.
I opened this book assuming it to be the story of a mother’s search for the child she gave up. Instead it followed the life of the boy, and is well-paced, nuanced and utterly fascinating. It explores family relationships and politics and provides insight into a lifestyle that many of us prefer to ignore or discount. I have not seen the movie, which presumably tells the experience of the mother, but this book stands on its own as a really good read.
The writing wasn’t bad, but the cover might indicate that a mother & son finally met. They didn’t. The story is really not what you expect, filled mostly with the son’s struggles. It just wasn’t what I expected after reading the introduction, and it was a bit graphic for my taste!
Loved this book. It brought tears to my eyes as my brother, sister and I were almost put in an orphanage when we were 1,3, and 5. UGH!
Enjoyed it from page one. Very sad they couldn’t meet in person.