Shaped by Silence
Stories from Inmates of the Good Shepherd Laundries and Reformatories
Description
The powerful stories of five survivors from Canada, Australia, and Ireland whose lives where shaped by forced confinement in Magdalene laundries and other institutions operated by the Roman Catholic Order of Sisters of the Good Shepherd. In these institutions, women and girls became a coerced workforce. While intimately capturing the dark and enduring after-effects of ill-treatment, the narratives also describe survivors’ efforts to heal and rebuild their lives. Their stories shine a light on a systemic pattern of abuse and cruelty and call for full acknowledgement of their suffering.
Awards
- Short-listed, Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing 2020
Reviews
"The poignancy of the title, Shaped by Silence, grows with each chapter in Rie Croll’s superbly written and important book, which seeks to correct the world’s ignorance about life for girls and women institutionalized in Magdalene laundries. The clever cruelty behind this system of oppression is shocking and frighteningly parallels the horrors of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. ”
- Judy Donaldson, Atlantic Books Today
“[Croll] interviewed survivors who entered institutions between the 1930s and 1960s, not long before they closed for good. Their accounts provide some of the most detailed information we have about Good Shepherd homes in Canada. ”
- Genna Buck, The National Post
“This volume consists of the stories of five women, from Canada and Ireland and Australia, whose lives were shaped by forced confinement in Magdalene laundries and related reform ‘schools’ operated by the Roman Catholic Order of Sisters of the Good Shepherd. “Shaped by Silence” gives such troubling and formerly hidden narratives a voice. ”
- Joan Sullivan, The Telegram