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The Birth House
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The Birth House
Ami McKay
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.Epic and enchanting, ‘The Birth House’ is a gripping saga about a midwife's struggles in the wilds of Nova Scotia.As a child in the small village of Scot's Bay, Dora Rare – the first female in five generations of Rares – is befriended by Miss Babineau, an elderly midwife with a kitchen filled with folk remedies and a talent for telling tales. Dora becomes her apprentice at the outset of World War I, and together they help women through difficult births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling marriages.But their traditions and methods are threatened when a doctor comes to town with promises of painless childbirth, and sets about undermining Dora's credibility. Death and deception, accusations and exile follow, as Dora and her friends fight to protect each other and the women's wisdom of their community. Hauntingly written and alive with historical detail, ‘The Birth House’ is an unforgettable, page-turning debut.
AMI McKAY
The Birth House
Copyright (#ulink_b22f12aa-c30a-5d52-b3b7-398abd3c710e)
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercolins.co.uk/)
First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2006
Copyright © Ami McKay 2006
PS Section copyright © Rose Gaete 2007, except ‘The Occasional Knitter’s Society’, ‘A Brief History of the Vibrator’ and ‘The Halifax Explosion’ copyright © Ami McKay 2006 and ‘What Inspired The Birth House?’ copyright © Ami McKay 2007
PS™ is a trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
Ami McKay asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007233304
Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2012 ISBN: 9780007391486
Version: 2017-01-12
Praise For The Birth House (#ulink_02b0274e-f887-5e82-ac27-8a9eeed9eaac)
From the reviews of The Birth House:
‘Modern medicine clashes with folk remedies in … McKay’s stirring saga of midwifery in Nova Scotia … An impressive novel, laced with quirky research and rippling with muscular poetry. As you’d expect, there are plenty of messy scenes starring wild-haired, blood-slicked mums-to-be, yet beyond the gore and folksy detail, a quieter drama plays out: that of women asserting their right to control their bodies’
HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON, Observer
‘McKay’s achievement lies in shaping a candidly told story rich in sub-plots about what is an effective, non-sentimental feminist polemic confronting domestic violence, marital rape and incest … A dramatic, convincing novel … unusual, vigorous and disciplined’
Irish Times
‘This is a truly captivating read … [McKay] weaves lyrical detail of the natural beauty in which these pioneer families live with the pricklier reality of the First World War era, when centuries-old folk wisdom collides with modern science. The underlying theme of the shared strength that women give each other in hard circumstances lends this tale a solid bedrock’
She
‘Ami McKay cleverly points up the good and the bad in both old and new attitudes, while contemporary newspaper reports and advertisements illustrate the pace of change’
Guardian
‘Mckay makes ingenious use of diary entries, letters, newspaper clippings real and imagined, invitations, and old wives’ remedies. Despite (or because of) all this stylistic variety, The Birth House builds up a strong narrative momentum. Intelligent, quirky, passionate, and funny, it deserves a wide readership and a long shelf life’
Quill & Quire
‘The Birth House has a spirited momentum, and it is difficult not to be swept along by it … [McKay’s] writing is often beautiful, with colourful turns of phrase that mirror the earthiness of her setting … She does know her way around a good story’
Sunday Business Post
‘A gripping tale of times and traditions long past’
Belfast Telegraph
‘[McKay] … stylishly re-creates the pioneer days of Nova Scotia with a fine eye for descriptive detail and history … Wise, wry, witty and yet deeply serious’
Historical Novels Review
‘The Birth House is an astonishing debut, a book that will break your heart and take your breath away … To read The Birth Houseis to enter a world, a richly imagined and keenly observed fictional totality without seams of doubt, without any fissure of disbelief. It is a world from which one will be reluctant to depart. The novel will linger in the reader’s memory as the finest fiction always does. To say this is a powerful debut is to damn Ami McKay’s novel with too faint praise; it is an altogether remarkable work from an impressive new talent’
The Ottawa Citizen
For my husband, Ian
My heart, my love, my home
Contents
Cover (#uefd4bc6b-66f7-5169-94c5-8c14f061bdcf)
Title Page (#ud12cf106-aa88-5e36-9998-10b8d0ad554c)
Copyright (#ulink_b2ca4ed5-ae53-5709-b261-71da63e09b8a)
Praise for The Birth House (#ulink_69094016-ce70-55a8-b853-e0f43871024e)
Dedication (#uafa05624-8701-541e-a65e-6b3921932a54)
Prologue (#ulink_1dc44d6f-0458-52a4-ab93-e047f78d8dd4)
Ami McKay
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.Epic and enchanting, ‘The Birth House’ is a gripping saga about a midwife's struggles in the wilds of Nova Scotia.As a child in the small village of Scot's Bay, Dora Rare – the first female in five generations of Rares – is befriended by Miss Babineau, an elderly midwife with a kitchen filled with folk remedies and a talent for telling tales. Dora becomes her apprentice at the outset of World War I, and together they help women through difficult births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling marriages.But their traditions and methods are threatened when a doctor comes to town with promises of painless childbirth, and sets about undermining Dora's credibility. Death and deception, accusations and exile follow, as Dora and her friends fight to protect each other and the women's wisdom of their community. Hauntingly written and alive with historical detail, ‘The Birth House’ is an unforgettable, page-turning debut.
AMI McKAY
The Birth House
Copyright (#ulink_b22f12aa-c30a-5d52-b3b7-398abd3c710e)
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercolins.co.uk/)
First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2006
Copyright © Ami McKay 2006
PS Section copyright © Rose Gaete 2007, except ‘The Occasional Knitter’s Society’, ‘A Brief History of the Vibrator’ and ‘The Halifax Explosion’ copyright © Ami McKay 2006 and ‘What Inspired The Birth House?’ copyright © Ami McKay 2007
PS™ is a trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
Ami McKay asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007233304
Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2012 ISBN: 9780007391486
Version: 2017-01-12
Praise For The Birth House (#ulink_02b0274e-f887-5e82-ac27-8a9eeed9eaac)
From the reviews of The Birth House:
‘Modern medicine clashes with folk remedies in … McKay’s stirring saga of midwifery in Nova Scotia … An impressive novel, laced with quirky research and rippling with muscular poetry. As you’d expect, there are plenty of messy scenes starring wild-haired, blood-slicked mums-to-be, yet beyond the gore and folksy detail, a quieter drama plays out: that of women asserting their right to control their bodies’
HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON, Observer
‘McKay’s achievement lies in shaping a candidly told story rich in sub-plots about what is an effective, non-sentimental feminist polemic confronting domestic violence, marital rape and incest … A dramatic, convincing novel … unusual, vigorous and disciplined’
Irish Times
‘This is a truly captivating read … [McKay] weaves lyrical detail of the natural beauty in which these pioneer families live with the pricklier reality of the First World War era, when centuries-old folk wisdom collides with modern science. The underlying theme of the shared strength that women give each other in hard circumstances lends this tale a solid bedrock’
She
‘Ami McKay cleverly points up the good and the bad in both old and new attitudes, while contemporary newspaper reports and advertisements illustrate the pace of change’
Guardian
‘Mckay makes ingenious use of diary entries, letters, newspaper clippings real and imagined, invitations, and old wives’ remedies. Despite (or because of) all this stylistic variety, The Birth House builds up a strong narrative momentum. Intelligent, quirky, passionate, and funny, it deserves a wide readership and a long shelf life’
Quill & Quire
‘The Birth House has a spirited momentum, and it is difficult not to be swept along by it … [McKay’s] writing is often beautiful, with colourful turns of phrase that mirror the earthiness of her setting … She does know her way around a good story’
Sunday Business Post
‘A gripping tale of times and traditions long past’
Belfast Telegraph
‘[McKay] … stylishly re-creates the pioneer days of Nova Scotia with a fine eye for descriptive detail and history … Wise, wry, witty and yet deeply serious’
Historical Novels Review
‘The Birth House is an astonishing debut, a book that will break your heart and take your breath away … To read The Birth Houseis to enter a world, a richly imagined and keenly observed fictional totality without seams of doubt, without any fissure of disbelief. It is a world from which one will be reluctant to depart. The novel will linger in the reader’s memory as the finest fiction always does. To say this is a powerful debut is to damn Ami McKay’s novel with too faint praise; it is an altogether remarkable work from an impressive new talent’
The Ottawa Citizen
For my husband, Ian
My heart, my love, my home
Contents
Cover (#uefd4bc6b-66f7-5169-94c5-8c14f061bdcf)
Title Page (#ud12cf106-aa88-5e36-9998-10b8d0ad554c)
Copyright (#ulink_b2ca4ed5-ae53-5709-b261-71da63e09b8a)
Praise for The Birth House (#ulink_69094016-ce70-55a8-b853-e0f43871024e)
Dedication (#uafa05624-8701-541e-a65e-6b3921932a54)
Prologue (#ulink_1dc44d6f-0458-52a4-ab93-e047f78d8dd4)
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