Imprisoned As 'Immoral', A Lost Grandmother Inspired 'Evidence Of V'
Sheila O'Connor never knew her maternal grandmother, who was imprisoned in a state reform school when she became pregnant at 15. But now, she's reconstructed her grandmother's life in fictional form.
Sheila O'Connor's Evidence of V is a novel built around a void, a blank space in O'Connor's own life: The story of her unknown maternal grandmother, a talented young singer who ended up sentenced to six years in a state reform school for the crime of becoming pregnant at 15.
"I did not know her, and I cannot know the truth of her story, but like so much 'missing family' she has
