Philomena - Martin Sixsmith

A rainy afternoon in the school holidays meant I had time at the library to sit and read this novel while teenage guests went to the movies.  I'd seen the clips for the movie based on this book, and wasn't quite sure what I expected to read.  The treatment of a young teenage pregnant Philomena Lee in Ireland sounded like it should have come out of a Victorian workhouse and when your teenagers complain about how tough they have it, maybe they should read a book like this.  Sent to the nuns to have her baby, young Philomena is abandoned by her family and left to work for three years in the laundry to pay for her sins.  Her young son is taken from her and given to a family in the US to be raised.

I was surprised to see that most of the book was the story of young Mike and his life, I was expecting more of it to be about Philomena and her search.  For that I give it a 3/5.