Kathleen spends her pregnancy hidden in her family home, and dies giving birth to twins, a boy and a girl. He brings her home where it becomes apparent that she is pregnant. During her absence, James receives a letter from an 'Anonymous Well-Wisher' suggesting that Kathleen may have gotten into trouble in New York. He sends her to New York City to train with a highly-regarded voice instructor and to fulfill her dream of becoming an opera singer at the Metropolitan Opera House. Kathleen befriends her younger sisters, and James returns from war a shadow of his former self, but still feels an attraction to his eldest daughter. Her father James is her only friend, and when he travels off to war, Kathleen is crushed. As Kathleen grows older, she is perceived by her schoolmates as snobby, and they turn against her. The novel then explores the girls' relationship with their troubled father their secretive, silent mother and friendships that grow between them as they try to figure out their family's strange and mysterious history.

She is from here on in the novel referred to as 'Other Lily'. She gives birth to three girls, Mercedes, Frances and Lily, but Lily dies a crib death shortly after. James eventually impregnates Materia three more times in quick succession. Materia senses danger in James' obsession with their daughter and sees it as her duty to keep him distracted and occupied (especially in the bedroom). She grows to hate James and their daughter Kathleen. Luvovitz, who teaches her to sew and cook.

Materia is taken in by the kind neighbor Mrs.

James, however, ignores and neglects Materia while spoiling and smothering Kathleen. Materia gives birth to their first daughter, Kathleen, and James subsequently becomes disgusted with his wife, realizing that he actually married 'a child.' Materia regrets marrying James, and does not take to her newborn child. Working as a piano tuner, he meets and eventually elopes with 13-year-old Materia Mahmoud, much to the anger of her wealthy, traditional Lebanese parents. Home Fall On Your Knees Wikipedia: Plot summaryĪt the start of the 20th century, James Piper sets out across Cape Breton Island to find a place to live.

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