Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An unforgettable debut novel about family secrets, falling apart, and coming together.
Dublin 1996. Joan Egan lives an enviable life. She and her husband, Martin, and daughter, Carmel, are thriving in Dublin at the dawn of an economic boom. But everything changes when Joan receives a letter from Emma, the daughter who she and Martin gave up for adoption thirty years before, asking for a life-or-death favor.
While Joan grapples with the guilt over giving up her baby long ago, she must confront her present as the cracks in her marriage become impossible to ignore and simmering tension with Carmel boils over. Meanwhile, Carmel and Emma must come to terms with the perceived sins of their mother, to imagine a future for their family before it is too late.
Spanning the nineties and the sixties, with Dublin as its backdrop, The Making of Her is the tender and page-turning story of marriage, motherhood, a culture that would not allow a woman to find true happiness--and her journey to finally claim it.
Synopsis
Chosen as one of New York Post's Best Books of 2022 People were forever telling her how lucky she was. But what did people know?'
Dublin 1966. When Joan Quinn, a factory girl from the Cranmore Estate, marries Martin Egan, it looks like her dreams have come true. But Joan lives in the shadow of a secret - the couple's decision to give up their first daughter for adoption only months before.
Then one day in 1996, a letter arrives from their eldest daughter. Emma needs her birth parents' help; it's a matter of life and death. And the fragile facade of Joan's life finally begins to crack.
Spanning the nineties and the sixties, with Dublin as its backdrop, The Making of Her is the tender and page-turning story of marriage, motherhood, a culture that would not allow a woman to find true happiness--and her journey to finally claim it.