The Golden Daughter wins non-fiction award

At the awards gala with Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor Mike Savage and event host Juanita Peters (right).

I'm feeling so proud and so grateful. Last night at the Nova Scotia Book Awards Gala, The Golden Daughter was announced as the winner of the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award.

The award commemorates the storied Nova Scotian author who won the 1945 Governor General’s Non-Fiction Award for We Keep A Light, her memoir of the 35 years she and her family spent as lighthouse keepers.

I'm glad that my book was able to shed a light on one of the less well-known atrocities of World War 2, the way the Nazis snatched five million men, women and children from their homes and their schools in Eastern Europe and forced them to work as slaves in Germany.

My mother Maria was one of those five million, snatched at the age of 17 from behind her school desk in Ukraine. She never saw her parents again. 

My mother was lucky. She survived the war. But it left her scarred and carrying secrets that she took to her grave. It was only after she died that I found a bundle of letters, mostly in Russian, had them translated, and set off on a journey that revealed not just the truth about mama's ordeal but also led me to a family in Poland I never knew I had.

The judges called The Golden Daughter 'a gripping story... written with unflinching courage.' And they concluded by saying: 'The Golden Daughter excavates horrors of the past to explore their enduring impact.'

I think mama would have been very proud last night when Juanita Peters, the host for the gala, ripped open the envelope and announced to the 150 guests... "And the winner is...".

I was sitting at a table next to Mike Savage, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. When the award was announced he turned and gave me a high-five.

The Nova Scotia Book Awards Gala is part of the week-long Atlantic Book Awards and Festival. You can find out more about it here.