Ten Hail Marys: A Memoir by Kate Howarth

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges.

In January 1966, Kate Howarth gave birth to a healthy baby boy at St Margaret's Home for unwed mothers in Sydney. In the months before the birth and the days after, she resisted intense pressure to give up her son for adoption, becoming one of the few women ever to leave the institution with her baby. She was only sixteen years old.

In Ten Hail Marys, Kate Howarth vividly recounts the first seventeen years of her life in Sydney's' slums and suburbs and in rural New South Wales. Abandoned by her mother as a baby and then by her volatile grandmother as a young girl, Kate was shunted between Aboriginal relatives and expected to grow up fast.

A natural storyteller, she describes a childhood beset by hardship, abuse, profound grief and poverty but buoyed with the hope that one day she would make a better life for herself.

Frank, funny, and incredibly moving,Ten Hail Marys is the compelling true story of a childhood loss and a young woman's hard-won self-possession. It is an extraordinary story of hope and survival. (back cover)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers, please note that this book may contain descriptions and/or images of people who have passed away.