"Superbly crafted and astonishingly powerful. . . . It will thrill readers who cherish their worn copies of To Kill A Mockingbird." --People
With a suspense, lyricism, and moral complexity that recall To Kill a Mockingbird and Presumed Innocent,
this compulsively readable novel explores what happens when a woman who
has devoted herself to ushering life into the world finds herself
charged with responsibility in a patient's tragic death.
The time
is 1981, and Sibyl Danforth has been a dedicated midwife in the rural
community of Reddington, Vermont, for fifteen years. But one treacherous
winter night, in a house isolated by icy roads and failed telephone
lines, Sibyl takes desperate measures to save a baby's life. She
performs an emergency Caesarean section on its mother, who appears to
have died in labor. But what if--as Sibyl's assistant later charges--the
patient wasn't already dead, and it was Sibyl who inadvertently killed
her?
As recounted by Sibyl's precocious fourteen-year-old
daughter, Connie, the ensuing trial bears the earmarks of a witch hunt
except for the fact that all its participants are acting from the
highest motives--and the defendant increasingly appears to be guilty. As
Sibyl Danforth faces the antagonism of the law, the hostility of
traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience, Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do.
100
Trade paperback
Good Condition
Thursday, November 1, 2012
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