This Hidden Thing

The young woman standing outside the prosperous Winnipeg house that day in 1927 knew she must have work. Her family depended on it. But Maria Klassen had no idea that her new life as a domestic would mark her for the rest of her days.

This Hidden Thing reminds us how dangerous and powerful secrets can be. This lyrical and moving novel offers one woman's compelling, ordinary, and surprising life.

Dora Dueck’s powerful and deeply engaging novel follows the fortunes of Maria Klassen, a young immigrant whose heart’s purest desires are in tension with domestic service, sexual passion, and the demands of family and church. Beautifully and intelligently written, the story transcends its Mennonite particulars to shed light on the universal and timeless struggles of the human spirit."
Sarah Klassen, author of A Feast of Longing and A Curious Beatitude

"Dora Dueck tells a compelling woman’s story too often obscured by history. She inhabits her characters in such a way that the reader is drawn into a living, breathing world that lingers even after the covers of the book are closed. This Hidden Thing offers a worthy female, urban counterpart to Rudy Wiebe’s Peace Shall Destroy Many."
Ann Hostetler, author of Empty Room with Light and editor of A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry