Secret Storms: A Mother and Daughter, Lost then Found

by Julie Mannix Von Zerneck, Kathy Hatfield

Overview

An Indie Reader Discovery Award and National Indie Excellence Book Award Winner.

A pregnant, nineteen-year-old Philadelphia Main Line debutante is confined, against her will, to a state mental hospital. She spends her pregnancy surrounded by the mentally challenged and the criminally insane. On April 19, 1964, she gives birth to a child, whom she is forced to give up for adoption.

A loving middle-class couple adopts a month-old little girl from Catholic Charities. She is adored and cherished from the very beginning. It is as though she is dropped into the first chapter of a fairy tale-- but we all know how fairy tales go.

This is the story of a mother and daughter. Of what it is to give up a child and what it is to be given up. Of what it is to be a family, and to never lose hope-- because anything is possible. In this award-winning memoir, Julie Mannix von Zerneck and Kathy Hatfield recount the stories of their lives. Written in two distinct and deeply expressive voices, their stories seamlessly meld together toward a breathtaking ending.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780985735807
Publisher:	Blue Blazer Productions, Inc.
Publication date:	03/22/2013
Pages:	346
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

Editorial Reviews

"The book shifts between sections narrated by mother von Zerneck and daughter Hatfield, and both authors have gripping stories to tell. Readers will delight in their shared narrative, which is as heartwarming as it is engaging. von Zerneck's life alone would be a fascinating read, but combined with Hatfield's search for her mother it becomes compulsive reading."
-Publishers Weekly

"The book is beautifully written and...compelling, to the extent that readers might feel they are sitting with the authors, listening to them tell their tale...more like a novel than a memoir."
-ForeWord Reviews

"Shining through both narratives is goodness and the power of the human spirit. A dually narrated, uplifting tale on overcoming profound adversity."
-Kirkus Reviews

"This story will break your heart, bring on tears of joy, and make you believe in the healing power of love, forgiveness, and family."
-Meredith Rollins, Executive Editor, Redbook Magazine

"A heartbreaking but ultimately life-affirming mother-daughter story that defies fiction. Every plot twist, every emotion touches a chord, even for those of us who have not had to endure such a brutal separation. Read it and weep-and then finally rejoice. An ode to the enduring power of family ties."
-Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of A Woman of Independent Means

"In my writers' workshops, the greatest gospel I can preach is the obvious one-to tell the truth, whatever form it takes. This amazing mother-daughter writing team exemplifies the concept to the max. The plot is Dickensian, rife with villains and struggle, the revealing of it, breathtaking in its simplicity and heartbreaking in its courage. What a story."
-Ernest Thompson, Academy Award-winning writer of On Golden Pond

"What an extraordinary and compelling story, all the more so because it's true-and told so beautifully by its two heroines."
-Alice Maltin, producer & Leonard Maltin, film critic and correspondent for Entertainment Tonight

"This is an uplifting story of hope and personal courage that is sure to resonate with most readers."
-Monsters and Critics

From the Publisher

In this heartwarming dual autobiography, actress Mannix and her daughter, Kathy Hatfield, recount the saga behind a separation of more than 40 years that began when Julie was forced to give up her newborn baby for adoption. Mannix was 19 when she gave birth, but in the more conservative moral climate of the 1960s, since she was unmarried, she was forced to give up her baby. The married father deserted her; her parents turned against her; and, with the connivance of a doctor, committed her to a mental institution on a flimsy pretext. Strength of character pulled her through, and after being released, Mannix took the first steps in her movie career. All the time she pined for the child she had given up. Julie later reconciled with her parents and married her lover, producer Frank von Zerneck, who had since divorced his wife. Kathy was brought up by loving foster parents and only found out in her teens that she was adopted. Kathy later married, and after her stepfather died, she set out to find her biological parents. The debut autobiographers alternate in telling the stories of their lives right from early childhood, which reads almost like a fairy tale but which is resoundingly true. Mannix's life in the Philadelphia institution, and her insights into the patients' lives there, bring out the bleakness of institutional life, particularly shock therapy. She led a life apart from the rest of the world; on the day the world was transfixed by JFK's assassination, she was being transferred between hospitals. A particular strength of the narrative is the two distinct styles of writing; each author states her own point of view simply, without embellishment. The reunion is similarly understated, which makes the meeting even more poignant. Shining through both narratives is goodness and the power of the human spirit. A dually narrated, uplifting tale on overcoming profound adversity.

Kirkus Reviews