The Birth House by Ami McKay was recommended to me at a local bookstore. I can’t remember what the conversation was, but I think the extent of it was “historical fiction” “female protagonist” “thanks”.
It was an amazing read and I am glad that I got to read it. Even months later, I am still happy with its story — and yes, I have unfortunately waited a few months to get around to posting a blog post about it.
In any case, The Birth House features a young girl as the protagonist, who’s family is fairly poor and lives in rural Nova Scotia during the time period of World War I (one of her brothers goes to fight). She develops a relationship with this elderly lady who’s the community midwife (and everyone thinks is kind of cooky) and she is trained to take over the midwifery. Meanwhile, there is a doctor in the larger community nearby offering drugs (like some sorta knock out gas) for when women are in labour and is trying to discredit midwifery, I guess medicine got reliable, like, 30 seconds ago, and they want to prove how much better they are (medical professionals are getting better at sharing their field, like making sure there are trained people in rural areas equipped to do some stuff, like basic deliveries of babies that a doctor would ordinarily handle but that’s another discussion). Any how, so it goes into what it was like in those communities, sort of the shift in culture during that time with regards to maternal and neonatal care and all that. The character goes through other stuff, like a fairly craptastic marriage, and dealing with the impacts of WWI.
It was such a good book, and, to be honest, sometimes it is really hard to get a book that is written by a Canadian and in Canada, unless you’re reading in certain niche categories. So the Canadian-ness of it (and the fact that Canada is normalized and not some ridiculous stereotype about our accents and politeness etc.) is doubly awesome.
I remember the book being a bit slow to start out, so if you’re reading it, I would recommend being patient with it. I would hate for people to miss out of it’s amazingness over the pacing.
Plus, in addition, if you’re interested in historical fiction, especially the early 1900’s, this is the book for you.
Ok, so, I’ve said my bit. Hope you enjoy it.
| The Birth House |
| Ami McKay |
| Historical fiction |
| Vintage Canada |
| March 6, 2007 |
| 408 |
