In researching the story her parents never told, Alice came to a unique understanding of her roots and of the magnitude of what they had endured.

Alice marvels at what her mother kept sealed away, including that the Westmount house where Maria had worked as a housekeeper — the family who gifted her the wedding dress — stands just two blocks from where Alice lives today. During numerous visits, her mother never said a word.

“And perhaps that was her greatest act of mothering: to keep sealed away the story of a world she never wanted me to know, letting me grow up in the light of all her hopes,” writes Alice. “Giving me an ordinary life.”

“Alice’s felicitous prose flows flawlessly, drawing the reader in with each compelling chapter.”