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Fiction featuring Care Experience

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Secrets of Happiness

Joan Silber

2021

Secrets of Happiness (2021) by Joan Silber is an exploration of the search for happiness by multiple characters linked (albeit tenuously in some cases) to a man who travels regularly to Asia to supervise the manufacture of underwear for women.

This man, we find out, has 2 families living in close proximity to each other in Manhattan.

Everything changes when Family 1 finds out about Family 2 (the mother of the 2nd family is the hostess at a Thai restaurant Family 1 frequent).

Ethan from Family 1 narrates the first and final chapters.

Joe from Family 2 narrates the second chapter and that’s when we find out his younger brother, Jack, is sent off at age 15 to Thailand to live with an aunt because his mother is concerned about who he is hanging out with.

Towards the end of the book, we discover that Nadia has been living (since she was 11) in an informal foster care arrangement with dad’s former girlfriend.

Children and young people in social care, and those who have left, are often subject to stigmatisation and discrimination. Being stigmatised and discriminated against can impact negatively on mental health and wellbeing not only during the care experience but often for many years after too. The project aims to contribute towards changing community attitudes towards care experienced people as a group. See glossary HERE


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