New Jersey, 2023. Riley
Carmichael is getting married and finally joining a huge, loving family,
but she can’t help but feel the emptiness of her own side of the
church. For most of Riley’s life, it’s been just her and her
grandmother, Betty, but as late-stage dementia overtakes her
grandmother’s mind, Riley knows she’s losing her, too. On one of Riley’s
visits to Betty’s nursing home, she encounters her grandmother in one
of her increasingly rare moments of lucidity, and Betty desperately
shares with Riley a tatty birth certificate for an unknown baby born in
Ireland in the 1950s. Full of questions about her heritage, Riley
embarks on a trip to Ireland to find that elusive sense of home,
identity, and belonging.
Tipperary, Ireland, 1954.
Margaret Lannigan’s life is made up of weekly dances and time spent
with the love of her life, Joseph. But when Margaret’s older sister dies
suddenly, it falls to Margaret to fulfill the family’s commitment to
the Catholic Church: the eldest daughter of the Lannigan family has
joined a local convent for generations. Forced to part with Joseph and
take the veil, Margaret is sent to Ballyvale Home for Fallen Girls to
care for expectant mothers who fell pregnant outside of marriage. With
no training or midwifery skills, she must fight to provide the
compassionate care she feels these women deserve amid the cruelty they
face.
When Margaret meets a young and terrified Delia O’Rourke,
the sister of her childhood best friend, she must find the strength she
needs to protect this young woman and her baby in the face of a system
built to ensure they disappear.
Told with courage and heart, The Forgotten Midwife is a haunting, hopeful novel about the strength of women, the meaning of family, and the life-saving power of friendship.
About The Author
The author did a beautiful job of weaving this gripping dual time read.
A book filled with emotions, and the author's notes bring us full circle! A tale of fiction, but? Yes, these things really happened, sadly!
Family, yes, this is a story of wanting, a new beginning a journey, and big revelations.
The things that happened here, made me want justice, but keep reading!
I loved the epilogue, and as I said the author's notes, they made the story complete.
What people did in the name of religion is horrible, and not what God intended, evil takes over, and when you read that this is based on facts, it really hits home.
I'm glad I read this book, and will be looking for more by this author!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Gallery Books, and was not required to give a positive review.
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