Philomena, Martin Sixsmith
Philomena, Martin Sixsmith
6 Rating(s)
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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Philomena
A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search

Author: Martin Sixsmith

Narrator: John Curless

Unabridged: 15 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 11/01/2013

Synopsis

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

About Martin Sixsmith

Martin Sixsmith was educated at Oxford, Harvard and the Sorbonne. From 1980 to 1997 he worked for the BBC as the Corporation’s correspondent in Moscow, Washington, Brussels and Warsaw.  From 1997 to 2002 he worked for the government as  Director of Communications and Press Secretary.  Martin is now a writer, presenter and journalist, living in London. He is the author of two novels, Spin and I Heard Lenin Laugh, and several works of non-fiction, including Philomena, first published in 2009 as The Lost Child of Philomena Lee.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on September 17, 2017

To call this book “Philomena” is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to get readers to pick up the book because they saw the recent film starring Judi Dench. The film is good, the book not so much. Philomena Lee, of the title is completely ignored in the text after page 84 of a 420-page book. From......more

Goodreads review by Dianne on November 20, 2013

I watched the film and was deeply moved by Dame Judi Dench's portrayal of Philomena, one of the 1952 Irish Magdalenes. Mother of an illegitimate child, set to work in a convent laundry, whose two year old son was purchased from the Catholic Church by an American couple and taken to America. Despite......more

Goodreads review by Abbey on February 29, 2016

Historically very interesting and incredibly poignant. Particularly so as my mother was born in this place on 1st January 1939. Thankfully, I think my grandmother's sister and brother 'bought' them out when my mother was about two and a half - if they'd left it a few more months, I wouldn't be here!......more

Goodreads review by Paul on December 27, 2013

I believe this book is creative non-fiction in that the dialogue has to be made up based on what the author has found out and surmised about 'the lost child.' The movie, Philomena (which I highly recommend) is based on the book. The movie looks at the quest that Philomenia and a former journalist, M......more

Goodreads review by Southern_man on January 06, 2014

One of the rare times I would say the movie was better. The middle of the book really bogs down in Mike Hess personal issue with his sexuality. I understand it was all part of the story but I think it went on too long. If you liked the movie and want to know more about Michael Hess then read the book......more

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