Wow! So eye opening. Set an Ireland and the UK, it covers the sad reality of the mother and children orphanages and the bones that were found later on. If you like historical fiction and learning about things that have happened in the history of the world and child trafficking, I would recommend this book. ( )

*This review is an unbiased review of a book I received free of charge from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.*
This story moved along at a decent pace, which is good since it would otherwise be hard to slog through. I found the book to be very dismal with only occasional short and slight uplifting sections. I found the main character to be unsympathetic despite the fact that she had recently lost the last members of her family and had problems with her husband and with her best friend. She was quite a mess of a character but not consistently a mess that I could identify with. She was depressed at one point but having seen depression first hand, I just didn't find it well-described. She drank too much but didn't seem to be labeled as an alcoholic, merely went on major benders several times within the story. The inclusion of the Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland, which is a brutally true story, seemed it might be what the author really wanted to write the book about and in my opinion rather failed in fleshing out the characters of the novel. ( )

The story about family, relationships and loss kept my attention the entire book. Sills does a great job keeping the story flowing through different times and locations. The story around the Irish Mother and Baby Home was something I was unaware of and have recently learned happened in Canada also by the Catholic church. Such a sad and moving part of her story. There are several controversial subjects that give much food for thought and a great book club discussion! Thank you Library Thing for an opportunity to read and review this new book. ( )

Annette Sills is a contemporary fiction writer and a member of Manchester Irish writers. Her short stories have been longlisted and shortlisted in a number of competitions including the Fish Short Story Prize, the Telegraph Short Story Club, and Books Ireland Magazine. Her second novel, My Mother's Children: An Irish family secret and the scars it left behind., touches on the controversial mother and baby homes in Ireland through a daughter's journey in discovering her mother's past that led her to understand her more and find someone important in her life.

After her mother's death, Carmel Doherty went back to their childhood house to clear it up. Going through the things, she remembered the memories of her mother, her late brother, her voice, and her manic episodes. "First her voice and now her smell had gone from me." As she went along, she found a letter from her late father addressed to her mother, Tess; a letter that made her question everything she knew about her.

While she was searching for answers by discovering articles about mother and baby homes and asking her relatives and other people who knew her mother when she was in her teens, her relationship with her husband and best friend was under a strain. Carmel went depressed when everything around her was shattering which was necessary for her to become whole again.

This book is a memorable one for me. I always think mother-children relationships are sometimes complicated stemming from the inner struggles of mothers. Sills' way of telling the story made me identify with Carmel who was brave to dive into the past of her mother no matter how shocking and heavy it was.

Further, Sills managed to string together the events and lives of the characters, building up exciting points in the story. I gasped when an important person was revealed towards the end.

This book also makes me appreciate mothers more; mothers' mental health is very crucial to the total well-being of humanity. It's heartbreaking to know what the mothers and their children went through at the controversial mother and baby homes run by nuns in Ireland. My heart goes out to the mothers who were abused and deprived of their right to be with their children and to the babies and other children who were deprived of life and mother's love.

I received an e-book from Poolbeg Press through Library Thing. ( )

Disclaimer: An electronic copy of this book was provided in exchange for review by publishers Poolberg Press, Ltd., via Library Thing.

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Perhaps the most curious thing about Annette Sills’ novel, “My Mother’s Children”, is its subtitle: “An Irish family secret and the scars it left behind”. One might assume it’s the story of an unacknowledged child – illegitimate, perhaps, whose existence was hidden from subsequent children.

One would be correct.

But that still begs the question – why would an author (publisher?) telegraph their punch so blatantly? Given that heads-up, any reader who doesn’t see at least 90% of The Big Reveal by the end of the first chapter just isn’t paying attention – and if there’s anything this book desperately needs, it’s a sense of urgency over the main character’s search for the secrets her mother took to the grave.

Carmel Doherty is still reeling from the sudden death of her younger brother when her emotionally fragile mother, Tess, dies. While going through some of her mother’s things, Carmel discovers a love letter written by her father, in which he promises they will be together at the end of her “confinement”. One thing leads to another, and it becomes apparent that the young Tess Dolan bore a child out of wedlock while confined to one of Ireland’s infamous “Mother and Baby Homes” where young women were kept virtual prisoners and forced to give up their babies for adoption. Carmel is compelled to find out more about her mother’s past and the eventual fate of the baby, and her search gives the tale what little impetus it has. What she ultimately discovers is both simpler and more complex than she could have imagined.

The history of the Mother and Baby Homes, and the Magdalene Laundries, is shocking and brutal. Anyone who has never heard of the atrocities committed in the name of the Catholic Church is in for a rough ride. But Carmel is such a bundle of neuroses, depression, and anxiety, that it’s difficult for the reader to make any emotional connection with her. She sometimes seems just a straw woman, set up by Sills so that she can be beset by various disappointments and betrayals. Even though the book ends on a hopeful note, it can’t be said to be either cathartic or uplifting. Mostly, it’s just a dreary slog through the main character’s search, set against the complex issue of the Irish Diaspora in the twentieth century and the subsequent feeling of alienation felt by many of the emigres. ( )