Thursday's Child a novel of lost and found - Elena Schwolsky

Ruthie is the young, divorced single mom of a 5-year-old daughter in 1972 when she is recruited to travel to Cuba with other young Americans to work in solidarity with the newly triumphant revolution. She leaves her daughter Sasha with her ex-husband on a hippie commune north of San Francisco and heads out on this political adventure. When she returns after 3 months on the island instead of the joyful reunion she has been anticipating, Ruthie learns that Sasha and her father have vanished, and no one seems to know where they are.

As Ruthie sets out on a search for her daughter, her strength and resourcefulness will be tested as never before, as she deals with the judgment attached to her choice to leave her daughter behind. Along the way, Ruthie meets two other women who have left their children for very different reasons --an older Chilean woman who supports her son left behind with her parents by working in a diner, and a Mormon woman who impulsively walks away from her rule-bound life, husband and children.

Thursday's Child explores the powerful societal judgment that women face when they leave their children, the guilt and shame that colors their lives, and the courage they find within themselves and with each other to go on. The novel unfolds in the context of the 70's--a time of political upheaval, the growing strength of the anti-Vietnam War movement and the rise of feminism.