Philomena

A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search

By: Martin Sixsmith

Narrated by: John Curless

Now a major motion picture directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity) and starring Judi Dench (Skyfall, Notes on a Scandal) and Steve Coogan (The Trip, Hamlet 2): 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 exposé 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 separation.

©2009 Martin Sixsmith (P)2013 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“A searingly poignant account of forced adoption and its consequences.” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“Heartbreaking . . . a story that needed to be told.” ( The Independent)

“Emotionally compelling.” ( Library Journal)

Title - not description - is misleading

If you could sum up Philomena in three words, what would they be?

Moving, tragic...

Any additional comments?

Many of the previous reviewers have denounced this book due to its description. I didn't find the blurb misleading.. I don't know how much of a book you can make of a woman holding in a secret and hoping to find her son (tragic as it is)... the ramifications to Michael literally shaped the whole identity of his life and made a more compelling book IMHO.

Another reviewer also states that they were "dragged into leather and whip male sex." Dragged? No... it was mentioned, but only insofar as to denote Michael's self-destruction and his sabotage of relationships.

This book and performance are compellingly readable. I don't have to like a character (Michael), but I do need to understand why they do the things they do, which was done with compassion and grace.

I do wish more would have been made of Philomena's search for her son, but perhaps this is why Sixsmith consulted on the movie... which I think I am looking forward to see.

This is not an easy read, but it is important... if unwed mothers were met with more compassion, then maybe a damaged soul like Michael's wouldn't have had to be so damaged.

wow!

I really loved this book. my husband is a dark haired Irishman with green eyes. Irish Eyes!

Heart wrenching, emotional, touching, loving

Very well performed audio, great narrator. Beautiful true story about one man's life journey to root his self identity with his birth mother and birth place. Not a happy ending but life and love affirming. One more reason to distrust the Catholic Church.

An amazing story, well told.

I deliberately delayed seeing the movie because I wanted to hear the book first, and I am glad I did. I still have not seen the movie, and I will be interested to see just how the book was altered, if it was, to create the movie. The book has a framework of Philomena's story but the heart of the story belongs to her son, Michael Anthony Hess. His story is an amazing saga not to be forgotten. It is a story of the 1980's and 1990's in America, a story of success and heartache. I highly recommend the audio book. It does the story justice.

wonderful story. surprises and satisfying themes

so much different than the movie version. this story had very inspiring subplots and helped me appreciate alternate viewpoints.