A novel about childbirth? Yes! I couldn't believe when Ami McKay's The Birth House fell into my lap this summer. I knew BOLD had to kick off our book club with it! All I can say is, despite being as busy as a midwife with 3 babies being born as BOLD 2006 performances headed towards Labor Day, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning finishing The Birth House and every minute or so I had to put the book down and say to myself, "I can't believe how lucky the birth world is to have Ami McKay, "I can't believe how lucky the birth world is to have Ami McKay." It was like a mantra that came to me as I read.

The Birth House is such an important book for everyone to read. It brought me into peoples lives in the initimate way that birth often does. I've read so many novels and often feel disappointed at the attention birth gets especially when there are midwives as characters and young mothers who are giving birth. The Birth House felt so authentic, the characters so rich and real, the images so vibrant. From the moment the obstetrician arrived on the scene on page 29 and Miss B, the midwife, asked him, "What you sellin'?" I thought, you got it Ami, you are telling a side of birth from a midwives' perspective that everyone needs to know. The truth that midwives speak, the lies that birthing women are often told...all of it is in The Birth House.

Here's a synopisis:

THE BIRTH HOUSE tells the story of Dora Rare, a young woman living in rural Nova Scotia. At 18, Dora wonders if she'll ever be married, or have the children she so desperately wants. Fortunately, as an apprentice to the local midwife, Marie Babineau, Dora finds a gift, and potential career, in helping women through natural childbirth. But Dora lives on the cusp of a revolution. While the men are off at war, the women of Scots Bay are fighting a war of a different kind - a war against modern medicine, which threatens to deprive them of age-old traditions, and their rights, as mothers, to the childbirth of their choosing. Dora soon finds herself the champion for a cause that may cost her reputation, and forces her to find temporary refuge in America. Amidst a colorful and strange group of women unlike any she has ever known, Dora enjoys her first taste of modernity, and independence unfathomable to the community of friends she has left behind. She also comes to discover who she is and what is most important to her, finding the strength to finish in the fight she began.

Join the BOLD Book Club and read The Birth House together as a community. Ami McKay will be on our listserv with us during September and October answering your questions and chatting with you. We'll offer questions to think about and discuss. And at the end of October we'll set up a phone-in discussion with Ami about the book that we'll air online afterwards.

BE BOLD and read The Birth House!

Warmly,
Karen

For more information on Ami McKay and The Birth House go to: www.thebirthhouse.com (try her recipe for groaning cake!)

To order The Birth House click HERE for options

To read Ami's blog, Incidental Pieces, click HERE