The Birth House

Spanning the 20th century, Ami Mckay takes a primitive and superstitious rural community in Nova Scotia and creates a rich tableau of characters to tell the story of childbirth from its most secretive early practices to modern maternity as we know it. 'The Birth House' is the story of Dora Rare, the first female to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in a small village in Nova Scotia, she is befriended by Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies, and a talent for telling tales. Dora becomes her apprentice at the outset of World War I, and together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labour, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling marriages. When Gilbert Thomas, a brash medical doctor, comes to Scots Bay with promises of sterile, painless childbirth, some of the women begin to question Miss Babineau's methods. After her death, Dr. Thomas doubles his efforts to eliminate midwifery in the area. He sets out to undermine Dora's credibility by blaming her for the death of Mrs. Experience Ketch, a woman who had once sought Dora's care. Gossip follows, the women begin to take sides, and Dora must summon all her strength to protect the birthing traditions and women's wisdom of her community. Gripping and alive with the details of times and traditions long past, Ami McKay's debut is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women faced to have control of their own bodies.

Literature & Fiction

Ami McKay

Contemporary

Vintage Canada

The Witches Of New York

Knopf Canada

The Virgin Cure

Orion Publishing Group

"Respectable Lady Seeks Dependable Shop Girl. Those averse to magic need not apply.New York in the spring of 1880 is a place alive with wonder and curiosity. Determined to learn the truth about the world, its residents enthusiastically engage in both scientific experimentation and spiritualist pursuits. Seances are the entertainment of choice in exclusive social circles, and many enterprising women--some possessed of true intuitive powers, and some gifted with the art of performance--find work as mediums.Enter Adelaide Thom and Eleanor St. Clair. At their humble teashop, Tea and Sympathy, they provide a place for whispered confessions, secret cures, and spiritual assignations for a select society of ladies, who speak the right words and ask the right questions. But the profile of Tea and Sympathy is about to change with the fortuitous arrival of Beatrice Dunn.When seventeen-year-old Beatrice leaves the safety of her village to answer an ad that reads "Respectable Lady Seeks Dependable Shop Girl. Those averse to magic need not apply," she has little inclination of what the job will demand of her. Beatrice doesn't know it yet, but she is no ordinary small-town girl; she has great spiritual gifts--ones that will serve as her greatest asset and also place her in grave danger. Under the tutelage of Adelaide and Eleanor, Beatrice comes to harness many of her powers, but not even they can prepare her for the evils lurking in the darkest corners of the city or the courage it will take to face them.

The Witches of New York

orion#

The Virgin Cure: A Novel (Large Print)

Genre Fiction

Doubleday Large Print

Der verbotene Garten

btb Taschenbuch

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Books by Ami McKay