Local author Carolyn Huizinga Mills will be at the Grand River Stanley Park Library discussing her 2022 novel, Sins of the Daughter. This event will feature a reading, Q&A and book signing.

About the book:

Danah Calsely was only nine when her mother abandoned her. Years later, as a promising Sociology PhD candidate, Danah appears largely unaffected by this traumatic loss — until she finds a letter that she’s convinced is from her missing mother. The truth about Jane Lily and her disappearance is wrapped in a long history of silence, and Danah’s grandmother, Edith, has no interest in rehashing the past.

Danah becomes obsessed with the letter and the secrets she believes Edith is keeping from her. Edith is convinced she’s only protecting her granddaughter, but she has her own reasons for staying silent. As for Jane Lily herself, she has a certain knack for disappearing.

A story of heartbreak and hope, guilt and redemption, Sins of the Daughter explores the fragility of the bond between mothers and daughters and the domino effect that the choices of one generation have on the next.

About the author:

Ever since reading L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon as a child, Carolyn Huizinga Mills has dreamed of being an author. She didn’t start writing seriously, though, until she had done practical things like finishing university and finding a job. She began with short stories, then progressed to picture books and novels.

She describes her first two novels, The Good Son (Cormorant Books, 2021) and Sins of the Daughter (Cormorant Books, 2022), as character-driven family dramas with a hint of mystery. Driven by an underlying interest in human behaviour and motivation, in these first two novels she explores the complex relationships that exist within families and how those relationships shape people’s lives.

Carolyn also has also written two picture books, The Little Boy Who Lived Down the Drain (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2017) and Grandpa’s Stars (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2023). Both of these stories also explore family connections while paying homage to the role of imagination in young children’s lives.

Carolyn currently works as a grade 7 teacher, where she is able to share her passion for reading and writing with her students. She was born in Calgary, Alberta, and moved at the age of twelve to southwestern Ontario, where she still lives with her husband and two children. Before settling down, she worked overseas in Scotland and Australia, two places she would gladly call home, and which have both found their way into her most recent novel.

In addition to reading and writing, Carolyn loves playing soccer, camping, traveling, napping, and eating dark chocolate.

You can view and borrow Carolyn's other books in the library catalogue.

Registration Required.