It's Publication Day

It's publication day for The Golden Daughter. I'm excited beyond words. I dropped by a branch of Indigo to see the book on the shelves, and I was flattered when the staff asked me to sign their stock.

It's been a long journey since my mother died and I found her secret letters, the letters she had clung on to for 80 years.

When I had them translated from their original Russian and Polish, I saw my mother in a new light. She had endured slavery, abuse, and near-starvation at the hands of the Nazis who abducted her from her school in Ukraine in 1943 when she was just 17. She survived being bombed by the Allies. And she survived the chaos after World War 2, only to get caught up in a love triangle that shaped the rest of her life - and mine, too.

Today the story she would never tell is in print in bookstores. And I am honoured by the reaction to its publication.

The book has just been featured on Open Book, an online resource which has a special focus on the books produced by Ontario's independent, Canadian-owned publishers - publishers like House of Anansi which was the wonderful midwife guiding the birth of The Golden Daughter.

Open Book calls it "a moving and crucial memoir". The article continues: "As Halina pieces together this hidden history, she comes to understand the complex legacy of trauma, love, and survival that shaped both her mother’s life and her own. Ultimately, the memoir is a journey of discovery, forgiveness, and reconciliation."

You can read my full interview with the Open Book team on their website: https://open-book.ca/News/Renowned-Journalist-Halina-St.-James-Pens-a-Powerful-Memoir-in-The-Golden-Daughter