Description
Danah Calsely was only nine when her mother abandoned her. Years later, as a promising Sociology PhD candidate, Danah appears largely unaffected by this traumatic loss — until she finds a letter that she’s convinced is from her missing mother. The truth about Jane Lily and her disappearance is wrapped in a long history of silence, and Danah’s grandmother, Edith, has no interest in rehashing the past.
Danah becomes obsessed with the letter and the secrets she believes Edith is keeping from her. Edith is convinced she’s only protecting her granddaughter, but she has her own reasons for staying silent. As for Jane Lily herself, she has a certain knack for disappearing.
A story of heartbreak and hope, guilt and redemption, Sins of the Daughter explores the fragility of the bond between mothers and daughters and the domino effect that the choices of one generation have on the next.
Reviews
“At some point, this is every mother’s nightmarish dream — to just walk away from it all. With sharp insight and superb storytelling, Carolyn Huizinga Mills tracks three generations of women through a gripping familial maze that gets to the heart of what it means to be a mother and a daughter.”
— Merilyn Simonds, author of The Convict Lover and Woman, Watching
“The characters are vividly rendered within a story that explores emotional themes of abandonment, betrayal, and loneliness, but also identity, family, hope and redemption. Thought-provoking and affecting, this is a story about the intricacies of family bonds and the longing for connection between mothers and daughters.”
— The Baking Bookworm
“A fearless, intense, and insightful examination of mothers and daughters, families and secrets, Sins of the Daughter is a taut and wise book that spirals its readers through unmissable twists and turns while staying grounded in complex and fascinating character studies.”
— Open Book
“A brilliant read, and a beautiful one — this story is a harrowing reminder that love and nurture, and their ineffaceable intertwining from birth, though not perhaps always a given, are always, nonetheless, a necessity.”
— Bookly Matters
“Complex, character-driven story.”
— Grand