Free (iTunes CA) Girl 43 [Australian 70s Institutional Abuse Literary Drama]

[ATDrake]

Girl 43 by Maree Giles is a recent-historical period literary fiction drama novel set in Australia in the 1970s, based upon the author's own experiences with the Parramatta Girls' Home, an institution which seems like unto Ireland's infamous Magdalene laundries, free courtesy of publisher Hachette Australia, and also originally out from Virago in the UK in 2001 under the title Invisible Thread.

Given what's come to light in recent months about the Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland, especially in Tuam, and other such institutions as the residential schools in Canada, the Danish government's "experiment" with Greenlandic children, the current trend for ex-gay camps and "correctional" boot camps for teenagers in several locales, and so many others of which took away children in order to "reform" them to make them better fit into dominant societal notions and ended up doing it really, really wrong, this seems a very topical story to have, and I'm pleased that this is being offered to us, even though I'm pretty sure it's another glitch freebie.

I'm just surprised it's stuck around for the past 2 weeks. Well, hopefully it stays a while more, for anyone else who'd be interested in reading this.

Currently free for who knows how much longer @ iTunes (only available to Canadians, as far as I can tell).

And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free book thread of the day, making for a hat trick of Australiana.

Enjoy!

Description
A powerful and shocking novel inspired by the author's time at the infamous Parramatta Girls' Home.

The graffiti on the holding room wall says it all: 'Gunyah is hell on earth'. And Ellen's about to find out why.

Ellen was never the daughter her mother wanted. Patent leather shoes and frilly dresses just weren't her thing and, at age fourteen, she's ready to leave school and find her own way. No one is going to stop her from going where she wants, doing what she wants, and hanging out with Robbie. Or so she thinks.

But when the police turn up, Ellen is deemed to be in 'moral danger' and is sentenced to the Gunyah Training School for Girls. Suddenly, she's no longer Ellen, she's Girl 43, and she has to follow the rules, work hard and — most importantly — stay quiet.

When it's discovered that she's pregnant, there's no respite from the staff. Told she isn't capable of bringing up a child, they twist the truth to make her cooperate. But however hard they try, they can't destroy the connection between a mother and her child… or can they?

Drawn from experiences in Parramatta Girls' Home in the seventies, Girl 43 is a story that could have come straight from today's headlines about the shocking treatment of innocent children and teens by people in the very institutions that were supposed to protect them.

[crich70]

It's at B&N but there it's $11.99 for a copy. Maybe the price will drop during the day. It's only just a bit after 2am here now.