{"product_id":"missing-persons-or-my-grandmothers-secrets-hardcover","title":"Missing Persons: Or, My Grandmother's Secrets - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eClair Wills\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBlending memoir with social history, Clair Wills movingly explores the holes in the fabric of modern Ireland, and in her own family story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Clair Wills shines a brilliant, unsparing light into the dark recesses of her family's history--and the history of Ireland. \u003ci\u003eMissing Persons\u003c\/i\u003e is a stunningly eloquent exploration of how truth-telling, secret-keeping, and outright lies are part of all family stories--indeed, the stories that unite all communities--and how truths, secrets and lies can both protect and destroy us.\" --Jeannette Walls, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Glass Castle \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eHang the Moon\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Clair Wills was in her twenties, she discovered she had a cousin she had never met. Born in a mother-and-baby home in 1950s Ireland, Mary grew up in an institution not far from the farm where Clair spent happy childhood summers. Yet Clair was never told of Mary's existence. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHow could a whole family--a whole country--abandon unmarried mothers and their children, erasing them from history? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTo discover the missing pieces of her family's story, Clair searched across archives and nations, in a journey that would take her from the 1890s to the 1980s, from West Cork to rural Suffolk and Massachusetts, from absent fathers to the grief of a lost child. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThere are some experiences that do not want to be remembered. What began as an effort to piece together the facts became an act of decoding the most unreliable of evidence--stories, secrets, silences. The result is a moving, exquisitely told account of the secrets families keep, and the violence carried out in their name.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eClair Wills\u003c\/b\u003e is the King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Her books include\u003ci\u003e Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eHistory of Post-War Britain\u003c\/i\u003e, named the Irish Times International Nonfiction Book of the Year, and \u003ci\u003eThat Neutral Island: A Cultural History of Ireland \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eDuring the Second World War\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize, among other works. She is a frequent contributor to the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooks\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e The New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, and other publications. She lives in London\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 208\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.55 x 8.39 x 5.7 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 02, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51748849189152,"sku":"9780374611866","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/219a6bc729e2a3609943433034d5a5c4.webp?v=1779918044","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/missing-persons-or-my-grandmothers-secrets-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}