The Hidden Child
Louise Fein
Genre: Historical fiction
It’s 1928 and Eleanor Hamilton is happily married and mother to a beautiful four-year-old girl, Mabel. Her husband, Edward, is a leading light in the burgeoning Eugenics movement. But when Mabel develops debilitating epileptic seizures and Eleanor discovers Edward has been keeping secrets, Eleanor’s world fractures. How much is Eleanor prepared to risk to save her daughter?
London, 1928. Eleanor Hamilton is a dutiful mother, a caring sister and an adoring wife to a celebrated war hero. Her husband, Edward, is a pioneer in the eugenics movement. The Hamiltons are on the social rise, and it looks as though their future is bright. When Mabel, their young daughter, begins to develop debilitating seizures, they have to face an uncomfortable truth: Mabel has epilepsy – one of the ‘undesirable’ conditions that Edward campaigns against. Forced to hide their daughter away so as to not jeopardise Edward’s life’s work, the couple must confront the truth of their past – and the secrets that have been buried.
“The Hidden Child is a heart-wrenching depiction of a golden couple in the 1920s…. Shocking, emotive, and compelling, but ultimately a story of hope. I loved it.” (Deborah Carr, USA Today bestselling author)
The Hidden Child is a Globe & Mail bestseller in Canada.
