Wayward Girls

Books

From New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs, a wrenching but life-affirming novel based on a true story of survival, friendship, and redemption. Set in the turbulent Vietnam era in the All-American city of Buffalo, New York, six girls are condemned to forced labor in the laundry of a Catholic reform school. In 1968 we meet six teens confined at the Good Shepherd-a dark and secretive institution controlled by Sisters of Charity nuns-locked awaymerely for being gay, pregnant, or simply unruly. Mairin- free-spirited daughter of Irish immigrants, committed to keep her safe from her stepfather. Angela-denounced for her attraction to girls, sent to the nuns for reform, but instead found herself the victim of a predator. Helen-the daughter of intellectuals detained in Communist China, she saw her "temporary" stay at the Good Shepherd stretch into years. Odessa-caught up in a police dragnet over a racial incident, she found the physical and mental toughness to endure her sentence. Denise-sentenced for ...