The Forgotten Midwife

ISBN: 1668047411

Author: Anthony, Laura

Condition: New

Set in the dual timelines of present-day New Jersey and 1950s Ireland, and based on real historical events, comes a powerful, poignant novel of sisterhood, family secrets, and resilience from the author of the profound, moving, and memorable (Fresh Fiction) The Women on Platform Two.New Jersey, 2023. Riley Carmichael is getting married and finally joining a huge, loving family, but she cant help but feel the emptiness of her own side of the church. For most of Rileys life, its been just her and her grandmother, Betty, but as late-stage dementia overtakes her grandmothers mind, Riley knows shes losing her, too. On one of Rileys visits to Bettys 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 Lannigans life is made up of weekly dances and time spent with the love of her life, Joseph. But when Margarets older sister dies suddenly, it falls to Margaret to fulfill the familys 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 ORourke, 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.