Penguin, April 2009
An unforgettable story of motherhood, the bravery of a community, and the strength of remarkable and inspiring women.
At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife to postwar London's East End slums. The colorful characters she meets while delivering babies -- from the plucky, warmhearted nuns with whom she lives, to the woman with twenty-four children, to the prostitutes and dockers of the city's seedier side -- illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, The Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.
paperback | ISBN: 9780143116233 | Publication Date: April 2009
Reviews:
"Readers will fall in love with The
Midwife, a richly drawn chronicle . . . An affirmation of life
during the best and worst of times, and a celebration of the relentless
drama and awe-inspiring magic of birth."
--Elizabeth Brundage, author of The
Doctor's Wife
"Jennifer Worth's memories of her years as a midwife were at once
hilarious and tremendously moving."
--Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and
Other Impossible Pursuits
"Worth is indeed a natural storyteller. . . . Her detailed account of
being a midwife in London's East End is gripping, moving, and
convincing from beginning to end."
--Literary Review
"An amazing if at times gut-wrenching read . . . a detailed trip into
history which may raise a few tears and many eyebrows."
--Warwickshire Telegraph
"Worth is indeed a natural
storyteller -- in the best sense of the term, with apparent artlessness
in fact concealing high art -- and her detailed account of being a
midwife in London's East End is gripping, moving, and convincing from
beginning to end. . . . [The
Midwife] is also a powerful evocation of a long-gone world
. . . and in Worth it has surely found one of its best
chroniclers."
--David Kynaston, Literary Review
"A chilling inisight into life for the average mother [in the 1950s]."
--Sunday Express
"Worth is a stylish and dramatic writer."
--Matthew Parris, Spectator
"This delightful memoir brings to vivid life London's East End . . .
full of humor . . . Worth's talent shines from every page."
--Sainsbury's Magazine
"In her marvelous new book . . . there are desperately sad stories
here, but tales of great hope too. Of ordinary people living, giving
birth and building their families despite enormous hardship and poor
sanitation. And of midwives delivering superb care in the toughest
conditions."
--East End Life
"Nobody who reads [The Midwife]
will ever forget it."
--The Woman Writer
"The Docklands in London's East End in the 1950s seems more like the
nineteenth century than fifty years ago."
--Good Book Guide
"Sheer magic."
--The Lady