Soon to be a major motion picture starring Judi Dench: 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, 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 exposE 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 separatio
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“In
this moving story—the inspiration for the hugely popular
film—narrator John Curless effortlessly moves between Ireland and the
US many times as Philomena Lee seeks her son. Curless captures many
accents and personalities as he compassionately recounts this sad but
uplifting story about a baby being taken from his young, unwed mother in
1950s Ireland…The conclusion is matchless: a note from Dame Judi Dench
who reveals how honored she felt to play this brave and remarkable
woman in the movie.”
—
AudioFile