Product Overview

The extraordinary true story that inspired an acclaimed film starring Steve
Coogan and Judi Dench, Philomena, by Martin Sixsmith, is a gripping tale of
heartache, hypocrisy and ultimately, redemption. It follows the lives of
Philomena Lee, who, after falling pregnant in 1952, was treated as a fallen
woman by Irish Catholic society, and her son, torn from her by the Church and
swept across the Atlantic as one among many forced adoptions. Philomena,
shamed and coerced into signing a document promising never to attempt to see
her son again, wages a secret, decades-long battle to reconnect with her lost,
beloved son. Unbeknownst to her, her son has been renamed Michael Hess, and
grew up to become a high-powered lawyer in the homophobic climate of the
Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party
where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that
he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent
where he was born: his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left
a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved. In
this searing narrative, Sixsmith exposes a clandestine world of love, loss,
secrets, and the unbroken bond of a mother and child. Read more