Midwives: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This modern classic from the author of The Flight Attendant is a compulsively readable novel that explores questions of human responsibility that are as fundamental to our society now as they were when the book was first published. A selection of Oprah's original Book Club that has sold more than two million copies. On an icy winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont, a seasoned midwife named Sibyl Danforth takes desperate measures to save a baby’s life. She performs an emergency cesarean section on a mother she believes has died of stroke. But what if—as Sibyl's assistant later charges—the patient wasn't already dead? The ensuing trial bears the earmarks of a witch hunt, forcing Sibyl to face the antagonism of the law, the hostility of traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience. Exploring the complex and emotional decisions surrounding childbirth, Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do. Look for Chris Bohjalian's new novel, The Lioness! |
Contents
Section 15 | 180 |
Section 16 | 203 |
Section 17 | 227 |
Section 18 | 241 |
Section 19 | 263 |
Section 20 | 281 |
Section 21 | 282 |
Section 22 | 304 |
Section 9 | 99 |
Section 10 | 108 |
Section 11 | 121 |
Section 12 | 140 |
Section 13 | 160 |
Section 14 | 178 |
Section 23 | 324 |
Section 24 | 335 |
Section 25 | 356 |
Section 26 | 371 |
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Common terms and phrases
afternoon Anne Anne Austin Asa Bedford asked babies at home bedroom began believe Bill Tanner blood Burlington C-section called cesarean cesarean section Charlotte Bedford Charlotte Fugett Bedford Charlotte's Cheryl Chris Bohjalian Connie Corts courthouse courtroom dead death died doctors eyes father fear Foogie friends girl going hand head heard home birth hospital idea inside involuntary manslaughter Judge Dorset jurors jury kitchen knew labor Lake Memphremagog lawyer looked Lori midwife mind minutes Montpelier morning mother never Newport night nodded Northeast Kingdom notebooks of Sibyl ob-gyn okay once Orleans County parents Pitocin probably push Rand Reddington Rollie seemed Sibyl Danforth sitting someone sort stared state's attorney Stephen Hastings stop sure talk tell thing thought told trial troopers Vermont voice wanted watch week window witness woman women word
Popular passages
Page 4 - And so when the fury filed into the courtroom. an apostolic procession of twelve. I studied their eyes. I watched to see whether they would look at my mother or whether they would look away Sitting heside my father in the first row.
Page 4 - Don't look down or up or out the window. Please. please. look at me. look at my mother Look at us. look here. look here. look here. I'd watched the furors for days.
Page 3 - I ncn er w enl so far as to lift the receiyer of an upstairs telephone when I heard my mother speaking on the kitchen extension. often I stepped silently down the stairs until I could hear...
Page 4 - I was fourteen years old that fall. howeyer. and it sounded like more than a myth to me. It had that ring of truth to it that I heard in many wiyes' — and midwiyes
Page 3 - I could haye reconstructed almost exactly what the lawyer. friend. or midwife was saying at the other end of the line. I was always an ayid parent watcher.
Page 5 - I hlinked. hut a fourteen -year-old girls eyelids are no match for the lament I had welling inside me. My cries were quiet at first. the sound of u mournful whisper.
Page 5 - Amidst my sohs and wails. people haye said that I pleaded aloud. "Look at us! Oh. God. please. please look at us!
Page 4 - I oyerheard her attorney explain to my parents what he said was one of the great myths in litigation.