Edition:
Paperback
ISBN:
9780571245185
Published:
05.05.2011
No of pages:
320
Other Editions: Paperback
The Birth of Love
Joanna Kavenna
In Vienna, in 1865, Ignaz Semmelweis has been hounded into a lunatic asylum, ridiculed for his claim that doctors’ unwashed hands are the root cause of childbed fever. The deaths of thousands of mothers are on his conscience and his dreams are filled with blood.
In 2153, humans are birthed and raised in breeding centres, nurtured by strangers and deprived of familial love. Miraculously, a woman conceives, and Prisoner 730004 stands trial for concealing it.
In London in 2009, Michael Stone's novel about Semmelweis has been published, after years of rejection. But while Michael absorbs his disconcerting success, his estranged mother is dying and asks to see him again.
As Michael vacillates, Brigid Hayes, exhausted and uncertain whether she can endure the trials ahead, begins the labour of her second child.
Through the interwoven stories of these four characters,
The Birth of Love
explores the intense, conflicting emotions of motherhood as few contemporary novels have dared to do. A beautifully constructed and immensely powerful work, it is also a story of rebellion, isolation and the damage done by rigid ideologies.
It confirms Joanna Kavenna, winner of the Orange New Writers Award for
Inglorious
, as one of the most ambitious and talented authors writing today.
Tags
Categorised as:
Fiction
Sub-categories:
General Fiction
Genres & Themes:
Dystopia;
Sci fi;
Rebellion;
Madness;
Motherhood
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