“This is a story about an older sister, told by her younger sister. But it’s about much more than that. It’s also about the South and its restrictions, about love, about family, and what that word, family, truly means. Repercussions is a complicated story, told with great warmth and insight.”

— Judy Goldman, author of “Child: A Memoir” and “Together: Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap”

“In the 1950s American South, a baby born out of wedlock was not only unmentionable, but any trace of the child was kept hidden away. When Vaughan Justice receives a call from the post-adoption services for the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina, she begins the task of unraveling the mystery of her older sister Lind’s life. With meticulous research, the author pieces together Lind’s history taking the reader on an emotional journey. In Repercussions, Vaughan uncovers the intricate threads that separate and weave families together. Written with compassion and tenderness, this beautiful memoir shows how truth has the power to erase shame and provide hope.”

— Ann Campanella, author of “Celiac Mom” and “Mother: Lost and Found”

“Repercussions is an absorbing story of love, heartbreak, reunion, and joy—all a fallout from the strict social standards of the 1950s South.”

— Wyndham Robertson, pioneering woman journalist

“Vaughan Earle Justice goes in search of her sister’s life in the 1950s. It was a time, says Justice, when the South ‘could handle a murder among its ranks with less public shame than an unwed mother’.”

— Gilda Morina Syverson, author of “My Father’s Daugher: From Rome to Sicily”