Chosen as one of New York Post's Best Books of 2022 People were forever telling her how lucky she was. But what did people know?’
Dublin 1966. When Joan Quinn, a factory girl from the Cranmore Estate, marries Martin Egan, it looks like her dreams have come true. But Joan lives in the shadow of a secret – the couple’s decision to give up their first daughter for adoption only months before.
Then one day in 1996, a letter arrives from their eldest daughter. Emma needs her birth parents’ help; it’s a matter of life and death. And the fragile facade of Joan’s life finally begins to crack.
Spanning the nineties and the sixties, with Dublin as its backdrop,
The Making of Her is the tender and page-turning story of marriage, motherhood, a culture that would not allow a woman to find true happiness—and her journey to finally claim it.
An atmospheric, intergenerational novel set in 1990s Dublin about a couple who is reconnected with the daughter they long ago gave up for adoption when she gets in touch after thirty years, setting off an exploration into past secrets.
Dublin 1996. Joan Egan lives a comfortable life. She and her husband of decades, Martin, and daughter, Carmel, are nicely situated in Dublin at the height of the Celtic Tiger economic boom. Then one day, everything changes when Joan receives a letter from Emma, the daughter who she and Martin gave up for adoption thirty years before. Emma's son, Ben, has leukemia and needs a bone marrow donor-and his grandparents are the last hope of saving him.
While Joan grapples with the pain and regret of giving up her baby so long ago, she's also forced to confront her present, as the cracks in her marriage become increasingly impossible to ignore and the long- simmering tension with Carmel grows. Meanwhile, Carmel and Emma struggle to come to terms with the perceived sins of their mother, and imagine a future for their family before it is too late.
The Making of Her brings readers on a tender and heartbreaking journey through the rich tapestry of Dublin, spanning from 1996 to 1965, to tell a story of a complicated experience of motherhood, a fraught marriage, a culture that would not allow a woman to find true happiness-and her journey to finally claim it.
Praise for The Making of Her
“
The Making of Her sucked me in from the very first page, and didn’t let up until I’d turned the last. Heartwarming and heartbreaking, it is an exquisite examination of the secrets that haunt us. I cried several times. A stunning debut.”
—Sally Hepworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister“Bernadette Jiwa’s moving fiction debut,
The Making of Her, explores the impact of secrets, the magnitude of our choices, and the tenuous binds of family. Set in Dublin and shifting between past and present, this deeply evocative novel is a masterful study into what it really means to love, and to forgive.
The Making of Her is ultimately a story about the plight and power of women, and is not to be missed.”
—Karma Brown, bestselling author of Recipe for a Perfect Wife “An absorbing, brilliantly paced book; I didn't want it to end.”
—Roddy Doyle “Oh how I love this novel! Once I started reading I never looked away, except when my eyes filled with tears.
The Making of Her renders its characters so perfectly, and with so much compassion, they feel like dear friends after only a few chapters. Bernadette Jiwa has written a beautiful tribute to what our lives can become when shame is forgotten, and love is reclaimed.”
—Nina de Gramont, author of The Christie Affair
"Bernadette Jiwa writes with compassion and grace about what it means to be a mother, a daughter, and a sister."
—Pip Williams, author of The Dictionary of Lost Words
