The Girls We Sent Away

Girls in your condition don't get to have their say.

It’s the 1960s in North Carolina, and Lorraine Delford has it all—an upstanding family, a perfect boyfriend, and an idyllic home complete with a white picket fence. Yet every time she looks through her father’s telescope, she dreams of leaving it all behind to go to space. It’s ambitious, but Lorraine has always been exceptional.

But when this darling girl-next-door gets pregnant, she’s forced to learn firsthand the realities that keep women grounded. To hide their daughter’s secret shame, the Delfords send Lorraine to a maternity home for wayward girls. But this is no safe haven—it’s a house with dark secrets and suffocating rules. And as Lorraine begins to piece together a new vision for her life, she must decide if she has the power to fight for the future she wants or if she must submit to the rules of a society she once admired.

Powerful and affecting, The Girls We Sent Away is a timely novel set during the intersection of the Baby Scoop Era and Space Race that explores autonomy, belonging, and a quest for agency when the illusions of life-as-you-know-it fall away.

“Readers will be entranced as author Meagan Church steadily peels away the veneer of the era, revealing the dark underbelly of a secretive and unforgiving society.”—Tracey Enerson Wood, international bestselling author of The Engineer’s Wife and The War Nurse

©2024 Meagan Church (P)2024 Recorded Books

Amazing story!

This is one of the most gripping and heart-wrenching stories I’ve ever read. An excellent read that I could not stop listening to. I will recommend this to everyone. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Double standards revealed

Heart breaking beautiful. I am stunned at double standards and why women put up with them. Hold your daughters close and never leave them to stand al

Very well written and narrated.

The story was sad, but accurately depicted the way girls were treated in that unfortunate era.

A glimpse of the past

This was a heartwarming story about the status of women in the 1960s- although sad, it reminded me of how far we’ve come

A snapshot of unwed motherhood in the ‘60s

Could not stop listening!
As an Ohio nursing major in the early 70’s, I visited a Florence Crittenten Home for Unwed Mothers. This book brought back the memory and the question if the happy dorm like atmosphere had a darker element. The majority of mothers were white and almost all gave over their infants to Catholic Charities for adoption. Of the few black residents, most took their babies home. Looking back, there was a hint of racial judgment.
The home closed shortly thereafter owing to the changes in social attitudes.
The novel’s cruelty by the house mother, the baby’s father and Lorraine’s parents was a bit too heavy handed. But no doubt social norms for unwed mothers were harsh in the 60’s.
Maybe it was because I wanted a well deserved happy ending, but the epilogue was rushed and very unsatisfying.
Nevertheless, I am going to recommend this to my bookclub.