by Ariel Lawhon
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2023. 432 pages. Historical Fiction
1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.
I was familiar with Martha Ballard through Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography, and I enjoyed returning to Martha’s life through the lens of fiction. The author’s lush descriptions, realistic historical details, and vivid characters immerse the reader immediately in the tense atmosphere of the story. I found myself outraged at how often the brilliant protagonist is sidelined professionally and personally by less knowledgeable men, but was fascinated by the ways she and the other women of the time still manage to claim autonomy in their lives. Author Ariel Lawhon has clearly researched the norms of the time period and the life of Martha Ballard in meticulous detail. Throughout the novel, the question of who killed Joshua Burgess adds an element of suspense to draw in mystery fans as well as historical fiction readers.
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Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientèle. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary's fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries. Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary's in a stunning twist of fate, and not everyone will survive.
A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785 – 1812
by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Knopf, 1990. 444 pages. Biography
by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Knopf, 1990. 444 pages. Biography
Between 1785 and 1812 a midwife and healer named Martha Ballard kept a diary that recorded her arduous work (in 27 years she attended 816 births) as well as her domestic life in Hallowell, Maine. On the basis of that diary, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard but of her society. At once lively and impeccably scholarly, A Midwife's Tale is a triumph of history on a human scale.
Eighteen-year-old Anna Firth tells the story of her remote English village, Eyam, which was infected by the plague in 1666 and where, persuaded by the vicar, the townspeople decided to quarantine themselves.
SGR
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