Duplicity: My Mothers' Secrets

Donna Freed's adoption memoir is a powerful, poignant, and pacey read that explores her journey to find her birth mother, who was part of one of the biggest true crime stories of the 1960s. She discovers that her mother was part of a con artist duo who defrauded an insurance company and ran away to Spain. Freed's memoir tackles fundamental questions about motherhood and identity, nature vs nurture, and how becoming a mother herself has impacted her feelings towards her two mothers.

Format: Hardback
Length: 252 pages
Publication date: 10 November 2022
Publisher: Muswell Press

When her adoptive mother passed away in 2009, Donna Freed embarked on a quest to locate her birth mother. What she uncovered was nothing short of astonishing - she was the daughter of notorious con artists who were at the center of one of the most sensational true crime stories to rock the United States in the 1960s. Previously classified records from the infamous Louise Wise Services in New York revealed that Donna's mother, a 27-year-old Jewish woman who was single, and her father, a 40-year-old Catholic man who was married with four children, had concocted a scheme to defraud an insurance company and flee to Spain to raise Donna. Further investigation revealed that in 1967, Donna's mother, Mira Lindenmaier, had faked her own death in a drowning accident off City Island in the Bronx to claim the double indemnity insurance money. Despite her love for her unconventional and challenging adoptive mother, Donna was now eager to meet her birth mother and uncover the truth about why her parents had abandoned her. How would she feel towards Mira, her 'real Mum'? How had becoming a mother herself affected her feelings towards her two mothers? This extraordinary memoir is not only gripping and fast-paced but also deeply moving, delving into the profound questions of motherhood and identity, nature versus nurture.

Dimension: 216 x 138 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781739879433