Miriam Carbe intertwines fiction and history to create a powerful family saga
A compelling novel about what we pass on from one generation to the next
Epic in scope and timeless in impact – a masterpiece
«Unwanted Daughters» is a major novel about four generations of women who never fit in, who were neither wanted nor longed for. The last in this line of generations is the author herself, who tells the story of women’s struggle for recognition and independence, while revealing how the legacy is passed from one generation to the next.
The story of a German century through one family: Margarethe, Marianne, Monika, Miriam. They love each other, they hurt each other, they fight for their independence. They come from Dresden’s educated middle class; the men and fathers fall in the world wars. The deepest rift occurs after the move to the West, when the highly intelligent yet fragile granddaughter Monika, in the 1960s, insists—against all resistance—on giving birth to an illegitimate Black child. The author herself is that child.
With humanity, urgency, and great narrative force, Miriam Carbe brings an entire century to life. Whoever reads this book encounters themselves and their own family histories. Epic and epochal masterpiece.