Patricia Mary Beaton

Prisoners of Silence Patricia Mary Beaton

Set in 1950s Ballarat and Melbourne, this narrative is loosely based on characters and real events in the author's life. It follows the challenges of Molly, a talented, but naïve teenager struggling to find her own path. Interspersed with humour and music, the harrowing subjugation and abuse of girls in a church-dominated society is clearly manifest in this story of sexual assault, resultant pregnancy and forced adoption. Significant others in Molly's life have their own stories interwoven with hers: a schoolfriend, the priest responsible for the assault, and the nun, her teacher and confidante, who leaves the convent no longer able to cope with the rampant hypocrisy and control. To 17-year-old Molly, whisked away to a hospital where priests' offspring are illegally adopted, everyone seems to have deserted her.