Philomena

A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search

By: Martin Sixsmith

Narrated by: John Curless

Now a major motion picture directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity) and starring Judi Dench (Skyfall, Notes on a Scandal) and Steve Coogan (The Trip, Hamlet 2): the heartbreaking true story of an Irishwoman and the secret she kept for 50 years. When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a "fallen woman". Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him, like thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later, Philomena decided to find him.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Philomena's son was trying to find her. Renamed Michael Hess, he had become a leading lawyer in the first Bush administration, and he struggled to hide secrets that would jeopardize his career in the Republican Party and endanger his quest to find his mother.

A gripping exposé told with novelistic intrigue, Philomena pulls back the curtain on the role of the Catholic Church in forced adoptions and on the love between a mother and son who endured a lifelong separation.

©2009 Martin Sixsmith (P)2013 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“A searingly poignant account of forced adoption and its consequences.” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“Heartbreaking . . . a story that needed to be told.” ( The Independent)

“Emotionally compelling.” ( Library Journal)

Title - not description - is misleading

If you could sum up Philomena in three words, what would they be?

Moving, tragic...

Any additional comments?

Many of the previous reviewers have denounced this book due to its description. I didn't find the blurb misleading.. I don't know how much of a book you can make of a woman holding in a secret and hoping to find her son (tragic as it is)... the ramifications to Michael literally shaped the whole identity of his life and made a more compelling book IMHO.

Another reviewer also states that they were "dragged into leather and whip male sex." Dragged? No... it was mentioned, but only insofar as to denote Michael's self-destruction and his sabotage of relationships.

This book and performance are compellingly readable. I don't have to like a character (Michael), but I do need to understand why they do the things they do, which was done with compassion and grace.

I do wish more would have been made of Philomena's search for her son, but perhaps this is why Sixsmith consulted on the movie... which I think I am looking forward to see.

This is not an easy read, but it is important... if unwed mothers were met with more compassion, then maybe a damaged soul like Michael's wouldn't have had to be so damaged.

wow!

I really loved this book. my husband is a dark haired Irishman with green eyes. Irish Eyes!

Heart wrenching, emotional, touching, loving

Very well performed audio, great narrator. Beautiful true story about one man's life journey to root his self identity with his birth mother and birth place. Not a happy ending but life and love affirming. One more reason to distrust the Catholic Church.

An amazing story, well told.

I deliberately delayed seeing the movie because I wanted to hear the book first, and I am glad I did. I still have not seen the movie, and I will be interested to see just how the book was altered, if it was, to create the movie. The book has a framework of Philomena's story but the heart of the story belongs to her son, Michael Anthony Hess. His story is an amazing saga not to be forgotten. It is a story of the 1980's and 1990's in America, a story of success and heartache. I highly recommend the audio book. It does the story justice.

wonderful story. surprises and satisfying themes

so much different than the movie version. this story had very inspiring subplots and helped me appreciate alternate viewpoints.

Heartbreaking and captivating

Would you listen to Philomena again? Why?

Martin Sixsmith has written an absolute masterpiece that walks you through the dual atrocities of the Catholic churches treatment of unwed mothers, and the cold hearted response of the American government at the start of the AIDs epidemic. I loved and learned from these amazing characters.

I purchased Philomena out of curiosity because it was an Audible Daily Deal, but it is well worth full price. I primarily listen to Audio books on my daily commute. This was a book I kept listening to even after I got home.

And finally, John Curless's narration was one of the best I have heard.

Passionate search!

Could not turn the book off!! Enjoyable from beginning to end. I grew up in that time and know things to be fairly portrayed. Great listen.

sad story

struggled to finish. usually i like details but i think this one has too many of one side and not enough to the main story

Very Moving Story

As most of you probably know (due to publicity about the recent film based on Sixsmith's book), this is the true story of a young Irish woman sent a to convent to give birth, and of the son who was taken away from her at the age of three--sold, in effect, to an American couple. Fifty years later, Philomena reveals her secret to her family and launches a search for the long-lost son that she has always felt has been looking for her.

In a New York Times interview about the film, Steve Coogan, who plays Sixsmith, says, "“We didn’t want to become overly involved in the life of Anthony Lee or Michael Hess. What appealed to me was the search for the son and the tragedy of not being able to see him grow up. That’s how Philomena experienced it; it was just out of reach, just beyond her.” This explains the main difference between the movie and the book, which focuses predominantly not on Philomena's search but on the successful but sad life of her son.

Anthony Lee was just three when he was adopted, as an afterthought, by the sister of an American bishop and her husband. The family, who had three boys of their own, had always wanted a daughter, but medical problems prevented them from trying again for one of their own. When she met Mary at Sean Ross Abbey, Marge was struck by the affectionate, dark-haired little boy who hovered over her like a protective brother. And so the two were adopted together. Like all of the young mothers at the abbey, Philomena Lee was forced to sign papers giving up all rights to her son and agreeing never to attempt to find or contact him.

It is the story of Anthony, renamed Michael Anthony Hess, that fills most of Sixsmith's pages: growing up in a strict Catholic family in the Midwest, trying to please an adoptive father who hadn't been too keen on his adoption in the first place and becoming an over-achiever as a result, struggling with his sexual identity, rising to a major post in the Reagan administration, and, always, being haunted by the memories of Ireland and the feeling that the mother he left behind was looking for him. Realizing the effect this loss has had on his life, especially on his ability to feel close to other people, Mike makes several visits to Sean Ross Abbey in hopes of learning more about his origins, but, following investigations into wrongdoing by the Irish government, the books are closed (or lost, transferred, or burned) forever.

The final chapters return to Philomena's encounter with Sixsmith and their efforts to locate Anthony, a journey that comes to a bittersweet end.

I have to agree with a reviewer who questioned the account of Michael Hess's emotions. Although Sixsmith did interview people who had known him well (including his sister Mary, former coworkers and lovers, and several friends), all of these people admit that Mike was a very private man who compartmentalized his life and rarely revealed anything personal to anyone. So while Sixsmith does a fine job of imagining what Mike may have been thinking or feeling, it came as rather a shock in the end to realize that the man himself had not been consulted in the writing of this book. (Yes, I do know why, but I'm trying to leave spoilers out of my review.) It also made me suspect that Sixsmith was promoting an agenda beyond telling Philomena's story and advocating for more open adoption laws.

But all this is in retrospect. Despite these concerns, Philomena is a moving and engaging story. Four stars here. I'm eager to see the movie version; although the emphasis shifts from Mike to his mother, that's to be expected when Judi Dench has been cast in the title role.

Not much about Philomena

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

More about politics and gay lifestyle and rights than about a mother's search for her son. Very little is said about her after the adoption.

Would you ever listen to anything by Martin Sixsmith again?

Maybe, the book title had not much to do with the story but some parts were interesting.

Have you listened to any of John Curless’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I like his voice and narratopn.