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Winner, Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia Evelyn Richardson Award for Non-Fiction
Secret wartime letters, a volatile love triangle, an unmarked grave, a noble heritage—a revelatory mother-daughter memoir about discovery, love, and forgiveness.
Sorting through her late mother’s possessions, Halina St. James found a secret stash of letters. They told how her mother, Maria, was abducted as a teenager in Ukraine by Nazis and sent to Germany as a slave.
After the war, Maria found herself pregnant in a displaced persons camp. She married the father, an older man from a noble Polish family. But her life changed when her husband introduced his friend, a young Polish freedom fighter. In Canada, the younger man betrayed his friend and ran off with Maria and Halina.
The letters made Halina realize how little she knew of her mother or her heritage.
The Golden Daughter is the gripping story of a mother and daughter shaped by forces they had no control over.
After uncovering truths hidden for a century, Halina was finally able to make peace with her mother, her father—and herself.
“An absorbing journey of hope, forgiveness, and finding family. A must read.” —Marsha Skrypuch, author of Making Bombs for Hitler and the Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy
“The Golden Daughter is a story first of survival in the face of unmatched brutality, but then so much more. Maria is a heroine, and so is Halina for unearthing her mother’s story, not just for herself, but also now, through this remarkable book, for us, so we never forget what happened in the darkest of times and how they cast a shadow on almost everything that followed.” —Peter Mansbridge
“This is a powerful and cathartic story—full of emotion, discovery, and a history few have chosen to share. I couldn’t stop reading.” —Anna Maria Tremonti
“The Golden Daughter is a beautifully shared mystery of this age when family secrets crumble, providing answers to the question: ‘Who am I, really?’” —Kevin Newman, journalist
“The Golden Daughter captivated my imagination and then seized my heart and soul … This is a rare and precious gift of a book.” —Nancy Regan, author of From Showing Off to Showing Up: An Impostor’s Journey from Perfect to Present
“In this deeply touching memoir, Halina St. James tells the story of lives stolen, recovered, and finally reconciled—and ultimately, family love found.” —Pauline Dakin, author of Run, Hide, Repeat: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood
“The Golden Daughter is hard to put down … A story of war, of mankind’s cruelty, betrayal, deception and abandonment. But in the end it is also a heartfelt story of forgiveness, love and new beginnings.” — Winnipeg Free Press
“A remarkable, complicated, and nuanced story.” —Geist Magazine