The Stovepipe

the long version

Bonnie Virag's heartrending yet triumphant memoir, The Stovepipe, recounts the author's experiences growing up as a foster child in the 1940s and 1950s. Bonnie, age four, along with four of her siblings, was taken from her home in rural Canada and placed with the Children's Aid Society. Over the next fourteen years, the children are split up and reunited multiple times. By luck or providence, the four sisters spend the majority of their lives together working on a tobacco farm and living in an attic, where the stovepipe offers warmth, comfort, and news from the outside world. This is her testament to the resilience of the soul and the importance of family, friendship and fortitude.