The Lies They Told

By: Ellen Marie Wiseman

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

In rural 1930s Virginia, a young immigrant mother fights for her dignity and those she loves against America’s rising eugenics movement—when widespread support for policies of prejudice drove imprisonment and forced sterilizations based on class, race, disability, education, and country of origin—in this tragic and uplifting novel of social injustice, survival, and hope for listeners of Susan Meissner, Kristin Hannah, and Christina Baker Kline.

When Lena Conti—a young, unwed mother—sees immigrant families being forcibly separated on Ellis Island, she vows not to let the officers take her two-year-old daughter. But the inspection process is more rigorous than she imagined, and she is separated from her mother and teenage brother, who are labeled burdens to society, denied entry, and deported back to Germany. Now, alone but determined to give her daughter a better life after years of living in poverty and near starvation, she finds herself facing a future unlike anything she had envisioned.

Silas Wolfe, a widowed family relative, reluctantly brings Lena and her daughter to his weathered cabin in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to care for his home and children. Though the hills around Wolfe Hollow remind Lena of her homeland, she struggles to adjust. Worse, she is stunned to learn the children in her care have been taught to hide when the sheriff comes around. As Lena meets their neighbors, she realizes the community is vibrant and tight knit, but also senses growing unease. The State of Virginia is scheming to paint them as ignorant, immoral, and backwards so they can evict them from their land, seize children from parents, and deal with those possessing “inferior genes.”

After a social worker from the Eugenics Office accuses Lena of promiscuity and feeblemindedness, her own worst fears come true. Sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics, Lena face impossible choices in hopes of reuniting with her daughter—and protecting the people, and the land, she has grown to love.

©2025 Ellen Marie Wiseman (P)2025 Recorded Books

I had no idea…

This was a great listen, an eye opening story that had me not only learning about events I had no idea had been allowed to happen but also thinking about events we are seeing happening today… the parallels are chilling

Everyone should read this book.

History is important, this was never taught in schools and we only hear bad about other countries.

Shocking part of US history

This book was so educational for me. A horrifying glimpse of the eugenics program in the US and something I knew nothing about. I appreciate the author opening this door for me to learn more.

The Arthur reviewing information about Ellis Island and old laws in US.

A DEPRESSING STORY. How could a person actually live thru so many hardships? At least a happy ending.

Very compelling audiobook

I knew a little about the horrible history of the American eugenics movement, but not how it was used to destroy people in the Blue Ridge mountains. I also was unaware of the way it impacted immigration to the US. This is a beautiful novel, wonderfully narrated. The singing is even perfect !