{"product_id":"missing-persons-or-my-grandmothers-secrets-paperback","title":"Missing Persons: Or, My Grandmother's Secrets - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eClair Wills\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNon-Fiction Book of the Year, Irish Book Awards 2024 \u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe \u003c\/i\u003eBest Book of 2024\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow far would you go for the missing? \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBlending private and public history, cultural analysis, family memoir, and autobiography, Clair Wills explores profound questions about memory, loss, motherhood, and emigration. She traces a history of sexual secrecy through four generations of unplanned pregnancies in her own family, stretching from the 1890s to the 1980s and from the West of Ireland to Massachusetts, London, and the English countryside, dramatizing the power of secret-keeping as a form of care, but also as a form of violence and exclusion. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the heart of her search is a cousin who went missing from her own family, born in a mother-and-baby home in the 1950s, and brought up in an institution. Wills asks not only what happened, but why? Why did families consent to the institutional care and control of unmarried mothers and their children? Why did the system make sense to ordinary families, and how can we make sense of it now? What questions should we be asking about guilt, blame, and responsibility? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn order to uncover how people thought about illicit sex, illegitimacy, and institutions, Wills follows the tracks laid down in family stories and anecdotes. She interprets the gaps as places where the past was both preserved and disavowed. We are all born into families, regardless of whether we are allowed to belong to them. In\u003ci\u003e Missing Persons\u003c\/i\u003e, Wills asks us to undertake a radical reshaping of our idea of the family. We are all part of the historical archive--the remembering and forgetting is in us, whether we like it or not.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eClair Wills\u003c\/b\u003e is the King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Her books include\u003ci\u003e Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eHistory of Post-War Britain\u003c\/i\u003e, named the Irish Times International Nonfiction Book of the Year, and \u003ci\u003eThat Neutral Island: A Cultural History of Ireland \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eDuring the Second World War\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize, among other works. She is a frequent contributor to the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooks\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e The New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, and other publications. She lives in London\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 208\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.7 x 8.2 x 5.3 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 01, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52694132457805,"sku":"9781250371928","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0927\/3304\/7117\/files\/RAiXeQRmWZ9781250371928.webp?v=1762053630","url":"https:\/\/belfastbooks.us\/products\/missing-persons-or-my-grandmothers-secrets-paperback","provider":"belfastbooks.us","version":"1.0","type":"link"}