The Girls We Sent Away : A Novel (Hardcover Edition)

A charged novel set against the forgotten Baby Scoop Era of the 1960s following one southern girl and her fight against a system that’s determined to take her child away from her

North Carolina, 1960s. Lorraine has it all—the boyfriend, the good grades, the white picket fence, the ambition to become the first woman astronaut. But when she—the darling girl-next-door—becomes pregnant, she learns that love is conditional and ambition has its limits.

In an effort to hide their daughter’s secret shame, her parents send her away to a maternity home—a common solution for “wayward” girls during that time period. Lorraine soon realizes that instead of being a safe haven, the home forces unwed mothers to relinquish parental rights and place their babies for adoption. Lorraine must decide if she has the agency and power to fight to keep her baby or if she must submit to the rules of the society she once admired.

Set in the Baby Scoop Era, The Girls We Sent Away juxtaposes the breakthrough technologies of the Race to Space with the societal realities that kept women grounded.