Jessica’s 14th Epilogue: The Lies They Told
I chose this book for my book club after seeing it listed among the top book club picks in a Google search, and I’m so glad we selected it for our May 2026 read.
The Lies They Told is a historical fiction that tells the unbelievable story that follows the, less known truth of the American Eugenics Society and it’s movement within the United States in the early 1900’s. Ellen Marie Wiseman writes a story about Magdalena, ‘Lena’ Conti, who is a 19 year old single mother immigrating to the United States in 1928 from Germany. Her and her family are seeking refuge in America after devastating losses that left them poor and desperate. At Ellis Island, Lena discovers that the promises of immigration and the ‘land of opportunity’, doesn’t come easily. After experiencing multiple humiliating exams, delousing and interviews, America splits Lena’s family apart. Lena’s brother is quickly labelled ‘feeble minded’ and her mother medically unfit, both of which would be too burdensome for America to accept, and as a result, they are deported. Despite the initial sponsorship having been set up for only Lena’s brother and mother, she desperately hopes that Silas Wolfe will agree to take them in. Reluctantly, he agrees on the basis that Lena will help take care of his children and household in exchange for room and board. As Lena and Ella are introduced to Silas’ farm at Wolfe Hollow Farm, in Virginia, she comes to know Silas’s children Jack and Bonnie. Grief is no stranger to the Wolfe family as Silas and his children are still grieving and coping with the loss of Silas’s wife and the children’s mother. It is here that Silas runs a tough ship, he’s rough on the edges, strict with unpredictable emotions and mood swings, no doubt, still in grief of losing his wife. While trying to hold the family together, the community is threatened daily with random sheriff visits, and visits from institutions with word threats for ‘feeblemindness’ which is the term that Lena has associated as threat for deportation. Lena begins to understand the ways of life in the holler in the Blue Ridge Mountains, her relationship with Bonnie blooms as she gains her trust, she learns the community traditions, cooking, the language and develops relationships with women in the tight-nit community. The bitter “truth” soon makes headway as the community is torn apart due to the American Eugenics Society and we see Lena stop at nothing to fight for the freedoms of her and her daughter and the community she has come to know.
The harsh reality of this book is that it reflects a haunting truth. Although some characters are fictional, the novel offers an honest portrayal of the American Eugenics Movement and the creation of Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I find it shocking that this chapter of American history is so little known, and it left me deeply ashamed of our past. Stories like this affected thousands of people: families were displaced, poor communities were torn apart, and many Americans and immigrants were labeled “feeble-minded” and treated as burdens to society. People were forcibly institutionalized and sterilized—children, men, and women alike—based on the judgments and decisions of officers, state officials, and doctors, often without any scientific basis. It is a disturbing example of abuse of power.
Bonnie Wolfe was my favorite character from this book. At her young age, she was strong-willed, lived with a hard shell but also was just seeking a motherly figure to give her peace, joy, love and nurture after losing her own mother. She loved children and was a motherly figure beyond her years as she watched over Lena’s daughter Ella. It was her sweet gentleness, care and love towards Ella that made me smile. Lena described Bonnie in the book as:
“a sage old soul, a wise woman reincarnated as a child, baptized by and deep rooted in the secrets of these ancient mountains.”
Living under her dad’s strict expectations and tough love, Bonnie was often just bursting to let her true self shine. She loved music, found peace in old songs, and even had a special place in the woods where she and her brother Jack would make music. She shared this special place with Lena and Lena saw who Bonnie really was, she was amazed and enchanted by Bonnie, by her ability to create such a special place and to see Bonnie’s remarkable musical talent. I loved Bonnie’s spit-fire spirit and her old soul. As Bonnie and Lena came to know one another, I loved the trust that they shared. You could tell that in time, Bonnie loved Lena as did Lena love Bonnie.
Our main character, Lena, at times was so infuriating. She’s imperfect, naïve and too trusting and I wish she just stuck to following Silas’ orders; however, I need to give Lena some credit as I full heartedly believe had Silas not kept secrets and gave Lena a little more background to why he was so strict, I feel like this whole story would be different. I can see who Silas was, he was stuck in his grief, completely heartbroken and desperate to keep his family together, he was intelligent and was being the ‘strong arm’ for his family and community. I believe Silas knew more of what was going on in the American Eugenics Movement than most characters and families in the book. The stress of this knowledge played a huge roll in his actions.
Ultimately, this is a story of immigration and not the romanticized version that we often see in major motion pictures/screen plays. The stark reality of our ancestors who immigrated here was that it was sometimes a tale of fear, humiliation, and uncertainty. Often, immigrants felt vulnerable as they learned life in America. Along with their displacement from their home-countries, they soon experienced displacement here in America whether trying to figure out who they were, and how they could contribute to society especially while encountering bad stigmas and prejudice. The book highlights immigration survivalism. They often endured hushed secrets, sacrifice, and daily judgments. Like so many immigrants in our history, Lena is a true inspiration of overcoming these challenges and discovering who she was meant to be despite the injustices she encountered.
The book also highlights power, control, and oppression. We see this in two ways during the book. A large source of power is the power held by officers at both Ellis Island and the state authorities conducting “research” in the rural mountain communities of the Blue Ridge Mountains. At a moment’s notice and at the hands of these people in control, control consisted of being labeled feeble minded with forced institutionalizations and/or forced sterilizations as part of the American Eugenics Movement. We then also see this control amongst the stories of hundreds of Blue Ridge Mountain residents when they were forced to leave their homes and sometimes generational land to resettle elsewhere in order for the Shenandoah National Park to be created. Between these two aspects, this historical fiction novel was a reality for hundreds of displaced families and thousands of institutionalized and sterilized people. This abuse of power, no doubt, decided the life and path of all those impacted. It eliminated their free will and at times costed them everything they had- family, homes, land, and their future.
This book is important to read. Up until reading it, I really had no real insight into the American Eugenics Movement in America. It is eerily similar to the stories and truths that you read about within the horrors of the Nazi Regiments during World War II. It’s was also a surprising insight to the creation of such a beloved place, the Shenandoah National Park, which is a highly toured park and cherished by many, but the sad part of the national park, is it’s history and the lives of the people and communities that lived there before the park was established. After getting through the tough content though, I loved the ending. I gave this book a solid 4-starts, Good Reads has it listed at 4.32 stars with 29,130 ratings.
Visit Ellen Marie Wiseman’s website at: https://ellenmariewiseman.com/
I plan to invest some of my reading time in her other published works which all seem to fall within the genre of Historical Fiction.
To learn more of the creation of the Shenandoah National Park or the American Eugenics Movement, check out the resources below:
Jessica's Epilogue 
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